FLOWER POT KITCHEN: COCONUT CHICKEN SWEET POTATO SOUP

21 Aug 2019

COCONUT CHICKEN SWEET POTATO SOUP

A hearty hug in a bowl, this soup brings sunshine to my day loaded with great food for you ingredients like chicken bone broth, turmeric, coconut cream, sweet potato herbs and spices what’s not to love in this soup. My geeky good for you Science waffle is below!

Prep time 5 minutes / Cooking time 15 minutes

My geeky science bit....

Chicken Bone Broth Nutrients

Chicken bone stock is so good for you, the broth water has calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur, trace minerals, chodroitin sulphates and glucosamine, these latter two ingredients are expensive to buy as supplements, but they are found naturally in bone broths. You need magnesium so your body and convert vitamin D into it's active form so that it can be used to absorb calcium. We only need around 400mg of calcium a day, but the RDA says 1200mg, the reason for this is that we do not absorb all the calcium we eat, but if you have a balanced diet the extra calcium you absorb can lead to kidney stones and calcium in the blood stream and heart disease, chicken stock is anti viral, anti bacterial and scientifically proven to be 25% as effective as penicillin.

GARLIC

B6, C, B1, manganese, copper, phosphorus, calcium, allicin, selenium.

King do healing foods, cleans liver, fights food poisoning bacteria, stomach bug bacteria, anti viral, anti fungal, natural compounds that aid liver to remove MERCURY, food additives and the hormone oestrogen from your body. Helps iron metabolism, cardo protective, helps keep blood pressure in check, may regulate number of fat cells, antioxidant, lowers risk of oxidative stress.

TURMERIC

Turmeric is super good for you, but more important is the need to eat turmeric with black pepper, why? The curcuma longs L in turmeric is not utilised in our body due to its rapid metabolism in the liver and intestinal wall, combining consumption of piperine a know inhibitor of intestinal absorption found in black pepper significantly increased the concentration of curcumin up to 2000% in turn extending the absorption time.

Turmeric 1500mg RDA

Turmeric is one of those little spices you should try and eat every day, helps control high blood sugar, great if you have or are pre disposed to diabetes, anti inflammatory, anti oxidant helps protect against ageing, anti atherosclerotic, heart protecting and weight reducing actions, another great benefit for diabetes and reducing complications from associated diseases. Important role of curcumin a key component in turmeric in the the prevention and treatment again of diabetes and associated disorders, neuroprotective and anti infections actions. Helps protect against Alzheimer's.

Vitamin B6, manganese, iron, fibre, copper, potassium.

Livers favourite spice, boosts liver detox by assisting enzymes that actively flush out dietary carcinogens, curcumin compounds heal your liver aiding detoxification and strengthening your whole body. Antioxidant, controls blood cholesterol levels, anti carcogenic, powerful medicine in anti inflammatory, supports flatulence, jaundice, menstrual difficulties, bloody urine, hemorrhage, toothache, bruises, chest, pain and colic.

ONION

Vitamin C, B6, B1, folic acid, phenolics, flavonoids, manganese, copper.

Anti inflammatory, anti bacterial, cardio benefits, protects heart and blood vessels, anti clotting capacity helps prevent unwanted clumping together of the blood platelet cells, lowers blood cholesterol levels and triglycerides, improves cell membrane function in red blood cells, can increase bone density and connective tissue.

COCONUT

Coconuts are rich in fibre, Vitamin C, E,, B1, B5, B6,, iron, selenium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous. Extremely healthy MFCA and lauric acid easily digested and almost immediately broken down in your saliva and gastric juices. This means pancreatic fat digesting enzymes are not essential which puts less strain on your liver allowing it to work more efficiently. Anti viral, anti bacterial, protects body form infections and viruses. Regulates thyroid function and is highly nutritious.

Ingredients

(serves 4)

1 ltr of homemade chicken bone broth

(recipe below)

1 tbsp ghee

1 onion finely diced

2 garlic chopped

1 yellow pepper diced

1 400 ml can of coconut cream

1 sweet potato peeled and diced

1 courgette diced

2 chicken breasts cooked and shredded or meat from homemade chicken broth

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp crushed red chillies

1 tsp Himalayan sea salt

1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 lime juiced

Fresh chopped coriander and sliced jalapeños to garnish

Melt the ghee and soften for five minutes the onion, garlic and diced peppers, meanwhile bring the chicken stock to a simmer and add the sweet potato and cook until tender. Add the softened onion mix along with the rest of all the ingredients except the fresh coriander and jalapeños, bring back to a simmer for a couple of minutes until the courgette is cooked, that’s it serve with a garnish of coriander and jalapeños.

Homemade

Chicken Bone Broth

(takes 2 hours & makes 3 ltrs)

1 organic chicken plus

2-3 chicken carcass saved from roast dinners

1 onion halved

3 carrots peeled

1 stick celery halved

2 leeks quartered

1 bulb garlic halved

1 tbsp sea salt

10 black peppercorns

1 bay leaf

3 sprigs fresh thyme

3" piece of ginger bashed

1 stalk lemon grass bashed

1 lemon halved and squeezed

Place all the ingredients in a large stock pot and pour in around 4 litres of water to cover the chicken, bring to a gentle just simmer and leave to poach away for around 1.5 - 2 hours, take off the heat and leave the chicken to cool in the broth for an hour or so this allows the chicken meat to absorb some of the gorgeous cooking juices and makes the chicken the moistest you will have ever eaten.

Remove the chicken and stock vegetables from the poaching stock liquid, taste the stock and either season with more sea salt or reduce the volume down to intensify the flavour of the broth.

Remove all the meat from the chicken and add back to the broth, pour the broth in to a large jug or one litre mason jars and store in the fridge ready to go when you need it. This freezes really well at this stage too.

No comments:

LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.