Healthy Tomato Avacado Soup

If we did what we should, we'd be drinking broth with every meal.  The health benefits are amazing and this is the perfect time of year to make and drink more broth.  But if drinking broth is hard to do, then getting more soups into the family is another way to take in more of this essential food.

We'd found that a good, homemade broth is more powerful than any medicine, if eaten regularly.

This Tomato Avocado Soup is something I've worked on "tweaking" for about 1 year and we all love it.  Even my son who generally doesn't like any soup, says this one is okay with him.  I'm not a fan of tomato soup normally, but this one I love.  Fall is the perfect time to try it and it freezes well too, so you can save some jars in the freezer.

Here is a good recipe for bone broth to get you started: How to Make Bone Broth

There are many ways to make broth - and it's important it is homemade rather than bought in a can at the store.  It's easy to do and inexpensive, so there is no reason to purchase broth!

HEALTHY TOMATO AVOCADO SOUP

Ingredients

1 jar of tomato paste (I purchase glass jars instead of the cans from our local co-op.)
1/2 yellow onion (chopped roughly)
2 Tablespoons organic butter
3-4 cups homemade chicken stock
2 garlic cloves
1 heaping teaspoon chili powder
1 heaping teaspoon basil (a little less is needed if it is homegrown)
1 heaping teaspoon oregano
3 t. Celtic Sea Salt
1 small avocado
1 lime

1. Heat butter and chopped onion in large saucepan.  Add onion and sauté until softened, about 2-3 minutes.
2. Add garlic and sauté for another minute.
3. Add chicken broth, tomato paste, salt, chili powder, basil, and oregano.  Simmer mixture for 15-20 minutes to allow flavors to mix.
4. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. Prepare a blender by adding 1/2 the avocado and 1 T. of juice from lime.  Pour in about 1/2 the mixture (I blend 1/2 at a time because that is what my blender holds easily).  Careful not to burn yourself, the soup is hot at this point.  Blend or pulse until onions are completely blended - soup will be slightly thicker now.
6. Pour blended mixture into a new pot on stove and set on simmer. 
7. Pour remaining 1/2 of unblended soup into blender along with the other 1/2 of the avocado and 1 T of lime juice.  Blend or pulse.
8. Add all soup to the new pot and set on simmer for 5-10 minutes. 

Served hot with grain free, grilled cheese (from raw milk) sandwiches is our favorite.

You can also pour into mason jars, leaving some space at the top, and freeze for use at a later date.

How the Chicken is Raised, Matters

"Why is chicken soup superior to all the things we have, even more relaxing than 'Tylenol?'  It is because chicken soup has a natural ingredient which feeds, repairs, and calms the mucous lining in the small intestine.  This inner lining is the beginning or ending of the nervous system.  It is easily pulled away from the intestine through too many laxatives, too many food additives... and parasites.  Chicken soup... heals the nerves, improves digestion, reduces allergies, relaxes and gives strength.  - Hanna Droeger from Ageless Remedies from Mother's Kitchen.

A good, homemade stock is the backbone of a good kitchen; it provides flavor to your dishes as well as sustenance and nourishment for your body.   Broth is dense in nutrients.  Rich in trace minerals such as magnesium and calcium as well as glycine – an amino acid that aids digestion and may help to assist in the healing of wounds and injuries which may account for broth’s fame as a healing, wholesome foods. (Read more about the benefits of broth)

Do not purchase canned broth from the store!  It is easy to make your own.  See some good recipes here:  Broth

 

The quality of your ingredients greatly influences the ability of your broth to produce a successful gel, sometimes the bones, meat and skin of conventionally raised chickens will not produce a gel at all, regardless of simmering and brewing under optimal conditions.

 

One surefire way to ensure a beautiful, mineral-dense stock that can produce a solid gel is to use a fresh pasture-raised chicken or a thawed frozen pasture-raised chicken, including the chicken feet if you’re fortunate enough to find them.  As the chicken will only undergo one period of cooking, as opposed to two (roasting and then simmering) producing a gel through this method of preparing chicken broth is more reliable.

Recently while making broth I decided to capture the visible difference between a pasture-raised meat chicken and a store bought chicken.  The store bought chicken I used was supposedly an organic, free range chicken - so it wasn't the cheapest chicken in the store!

Compare that to the chickens our neighbors raised with us and were recently processed by their own hands.

Look at the difference in the broth.  The left jar is the broth that cooked from the store-bought, organic chicken.  The jar on the right is from the chicken we processed a few weeks ago at our neighbors farm.

 

 

 



So if you have access to a local farmer and a little extra freezer space, it's very worth it to get a pasture-raised chicken!  Most farmers are happy to have you come by to see their operation, so you can see the living conditions of the food you are buying.  The health benefits are great, and once you've eaten chicken raised by a local farmer, chances are you'll have a hard time eating chicken from a grocery store ever again!

P.S.  Do you know the ingredients to a typical Bouillon Cube?  Here they are:

Salt, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, corn syrup solids, sugar, beef fat, monosodium glutamate (flavor enhancer), dextrose (corn sugar), onion powder, water, garlic powder, caramel color, natural flavorings, disodium guanylate and disodium inosinate (flavor enhancers), partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (soybean oil and/or palm oil and/or cottonseed oil), artificial color.

Grain-free Peach Cobbler

We have lots of frozen peaches from this past summer and a favorite for Fall is Peach Cobbler.

Below is the grain-free recipe we are experimenting with.  Soon I'll be posting a version that doesn't include sugar - I'm working on replacing the sugar with honey and stevia.  Still need some practice before it's ready to post!

In the meantime, here's a treat!

GRAIN-FREE PEACH COBBLER RECIPE 


8 ripe peaches (fresh, or defrosted a bit from frozen)
1 lemon
1 T arrowroot or tapioca
1 T of cane sugar (I use organic, non processed which I get from our local food co-op)

3/4 cup of almond flour
3/4 cup of arrowroot or tapioca flour
6 T of butter, softened
1/4 cup cane sugar
1/4 t. sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Peel and slice the peaches.  Toss with juice from lemon.  Mix sugar, arrowroot (or tapioca) together and toss with peaches.  Place in a buttered dish for baking.

Place almond flour in food processor and add butter, arrowroot (or tapioca), sugar, vanilla and salt and process until smooth or well mixed.  Crumble this mixture on top of the peaches.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.

Great when served with sugar free, raw milk, homemade ice cream (recipe to come) or homemade whipped cream!

You can also substitute your summer's blueberries for the peaches and make a blueberry cobbler.  My daughter loves this - and no grains!