This week, I decided to go on a soup cleanse. I wanted to maximize my energy and wellness heading into a busy two weeks of travel. I used to do juice cleanses, but I legit haven’t been able to do a juice cleanse since I was 22. Although I’m still an avid drinker of green juice, cashew milk, and kombucha, I can’t get away with only liquids for a week.
My issue with juice cleanses are that:
1) The lack of fiber is not healthy
2) It’s a ton of sugar (I only like the fruity juices, the veggie juices are not tasty to me)
3) My body temperature gets too cold when I’m on a juice cleanse…and I HATE being cold!
I love soups so much because with only a few ingredients, you can sloppily turn your favorite veggies into the best and most savory soups. You can also preserve all the GOOD stuff and actually feel full. In many cases, cooked veggies in soups bring out more benefits than the raw veggies (like cooked tomatoes vs. raw tomatoes).
When made right, soups are so satisfying – making it easy to cleanse for a few days! This week, I made four soups to make sure I don’t get bored. All of the below soups are dairy-free and can be vegan.
1. Green Soup (peas, broccoli, avocado)
2. Curry Carrot Soup
3. Golden Beet Soup
4. Corn Chowder (with no potatoes)
OK, so here’s the important stuff. These are my absolute essential steps for making any pureed soup.
You NEED an immersion blender. Instead of using traditional blenders or food processors, this appliance is so sleek, efficient, and easy to use. You don’t have to pour the entire (and steaming hot!) soup into a blender; you can simply blend right in the soup and twist off/wash off in two seconds. In total, it takes 2-3 minutes to perfectly blend a soup.
I also love that you can choose what consistency you want. I like pureed but chunky soups. So for instance, with my green soup, I will make sure I leave some chunks of broccoli to chew on! If you like your soups perfectly pureed, it’s also easy to tell for how long you need to blend. You have so much control with this kitchen appliance. You can buy an immersion blender on Amazon – I’ve had mine for five years already.
Once you have my favorite tool, here are the steps I take to make ANY pureed soup!
1) Create the onion and fat base – this is the number one step for all of my soups. It involves:
- 1-2 tbsp of ghee (or you can use coconut oil)
- 1/2 to 1 yellow onion diced (depending on how big your soup serving is)
- 1 shallot diced (optional)
- 1 small bunch of green chives (chopped)
- 3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
Throw your fat in with the onions and let it saute on low heat for 5-7 minutes. Then, throw in your chives and garlic. Let it continue to saute until the onions have turned completely transparent.
2) Add in your veggies of choice and stock. Now that you have your onion/garlic base, you will add in whatever veggies you want in your soup and some veggie or chicken stock. In the case of my soups, I added vegetable stock and:
- Green Soup: 1 frozen bag of peas, 2 cups of uncooked broccoli, 1 avocado
- Curry Carrot Soup: 8 sticks of previously cooked carrots (I baked them in tin foil before so they were already soft), masala, turmeric spice, 1 tomato, and 2 tbsp of coconut milk
- Golden Beet Soup: 3 golden beets, 2 tbsp of coconut milk, 1 tomato
- Corn Chowder: 3 cans of corn, 3 tbsp of coconut milk, 3 jalapeno peppers
3) Let all your ingredients and your stock simmer with hovering lid for 10-20 more minutes.
4) Turn off heat and IMMERSION BLEND!
5) Season with salt and pepper.
Now, who wants to join me on my soup cleanse?!
Hope you love these soup tips!
-Priscilla