My sister was very excited about a soup with leeks and asparagus but we never got to make it together. Recently,  when I got home after work, I realised I had the necessary ingredients in the fridge and got to cooking because it sounded like a very quick thing to make. And what a wonderful surprise it was! Whilst eating it I realised it is not only perfect evening food, being light to digest, but also it is so seasonal you cannot get any better. In addition, it was a surprise party for my gut bacteria. Let’s break it down.

I periodically prepare some chicken bone and muscle broth. I get some great organic chicken carcasses from the Brook’s butcher’s next door to my shop and roast and boil them with herbs and veggies. This kind of broth, like the good old grandma’s chicken soup, is proven by science to be one of the best things to heal the gut lining. What bones, joints and muscles release is stuff that literarily repair the gut wall. So, this is great for damages by inflammation and small tears in the lining like in leaky gut. Consequently, it is one of the most amazing things to heal inflamed skin, especially eczema and psoriasis, which are a reflection of the state of the gut. Whatever goes on your skin, goes also on in your gut.

So, back to the soup. Boiled leaks and asparagus, pureed with black pepper and salt, are light to digest and highly nourishing. Seasonal food is medicine for your body and mind. In every season Nature prepares us a harvest that reflects our metabolic needs. In spring need to alkalise our bodies, we need to rekindle our digestive power after winter and we need to get leaner. That’s why spring diet is so great because it does exactly that. It scrapes mucous, it pulls our fat from tissues and it reduces acidity of the winter period. Pepper is one of the greatest medicinal spices in our cupboard and in spring, we should eat loads of spices. If you look at animals in Nature you see them digging roots. They are spicy, bitter, pungent and astringent. We humans used to do that too, but lost the art of it. Fortunately we have easier ways to get the roots, from shop shelves, like ours.

I did put something very unseasonal in the soup as well, which is blue cheese and sour cream. In spring dairy should be used in moderation so I just put two teaspoonfuls of both but oh boy, did they bring the soup alive. However, there is a logic to why I used these dairy products. It is because they are fermented. It is good to have something fermented with your meals, to treat your gut bacteria. In fact, good digestion depends on good bacteria and, they love fermented foods. Or in other words, we build good bacteria with fermented foods. We can call them probiotics. Prebiotics are foods that feed the good bacteria and guess if leek and asparagus are great prebiotics? Yes, between microbiologists, they are famous for that.

So, the soup is prebiotic, probiotic, heals the gut lining, is easy to digest, highly nourishing, alkalising mucous scraper and can be considered your best superfood because it is seasonal. Here is the recipe (finally):

1 cup of chicken stock

2 cups water

½ leek

1 bunch of asparagus

2 tsp sourcream

2 tsp blue cheese

Pepper

Natural salt

Olive oil

Boil or steam leek and asparagus. Once soft puree’ them and add the chicken stock and the rest of the ingredients. Mix and serve in a plate with olive oil drizzled on it.

 

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