Comfort in a Bowl Chicken Coconut Soup

Better Than Penicillin, this soup is made with a homemade chicken broth, coconut milk, ginger, garlic, lemon, and chili pepper flakes.

We all know the benefits of homemade chicken broth with it's stomach friendly calming properties and a good dose of collagen for our joints, skin and hair. And if you don't here is my recipe and details, Chicken Stock from Scratch. I made beef broth or chicken broth every week. Trust your source of meat producer as well, my two favorites are: Klein Farms, Sunworks Farm, and Messinger Meats for my beef bones. With homemade broth, you are pulling out and condensing the nutrients of the bones, joints, and meat so you want to have the healthiest choices in your pot.

This soup is a beautiful, easy broth that is packed with flavor. It seems simple but it is far from simplistic in the flavors. I use this broth as a base for other soups but more than not, I eat it just as is. The combination of the chicken and coconut fat content along with the hint of a nutty sweetness leaves you satisfied with not wanting more from adding a pasta or any bits of meat.

The low-down on how good for you this simple little broth is, I like to think of it as a personality like that of a short woman, tiny but similar to dynamite: there is power and punch to it.

My Baba (we called her Nanny) and my Mom (we call her Mom) have always cooked with natural ingredients. Now they are called Traditional Ingredients or Real Food, how bizarre don't you think? We somehow have let industries re-market food as food. My Baba's skin was flawless and she didn't use anything on her skin. Her eyes were clear. Her teeth impeccably white. She never suffered from bad joints and had energy like a squirrel even in her early 80's. All she did was eat natural foods and meals.

With that said, one of the few vegetable oils that is highly saturated, coconut oil has been accused of raising cholesterol and contributing to heart disease.

But coconut oil does not raise HDL (high-density lipoprotein), and according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, "the higher your HDL cholesterol levels, the lower your chance of getting heart disease." There are books available on the benefits of coconut oil and fats, one being: The Coconut Oil Miracle.

In tropical countries where unrefined coconut oil is eaten liberally and the diet still consists of traditional foods, heart disease is rare.

Coconut milk is also rich in lauric acid, the antiviral fatty acid found in breast milk (and required, by law, to be in infant formula), which gives newborns immunity.

Calories notwithstanding, coconut oil won't make you fat.

The body burns the short and medium chain fatty acids in coconut oil first, before long chain fatty acids such as those in vegetable oils and fish oil, which it prefers to store. But discuss this with your Naturopath or Doctor if you have more questions.

The coconut and chicken broth make this luscious soup the ultimate cold and flu therapy.

A ratio of three cups of stock to one cup of coconut milk makes a perfect creamy soup, or you can make a lighter one by adding more stock.

Don't buy 'light' coconut milk, it is simply diluted with water. When you buy ginger and don't use it up quickly, keep a large root sealed in plastic bag in the freezer, and hack off a thumb -size piece when you need it.

For the soup, if you want to make this even more dynamic, I will add a small can of diced tomatoes with the juice. Sometime a can of sliced mushrooms without the juice. Fresh tomatoes chopped. Fresh mushrooms in half. Cooked, not canned, shrimp. You can buy cooked frozen shrimp. I often add a few dashes of fish sauce and/or sesame oil. Sometimes I will switch out the lemon for lime. I will add curry paste at times too. So use this broth as your base and try it this week to sip as is for a nice reboot to eating natural-traditional-real foods. It holds nutrients from the chicken broth which support immune-boosting properties, improves digestion, adds natural collagen to your joints, hair and skin. This really is one of my most favorite recipes:

Ingredients

1 thumb-size knob of fresh ginger

1 lemon

6 cups chicken stock - preferably Market Gypsy's homemade recipe or find real broth in stores like Purearth Organics, Nutters, Messinger Meats, or Healthfitters.

4 cups (2 14oz cans) unsweetened coconut milk

1 tsp chili pepper flakes

1/4 tsp unrefined sea salt

1-2 garlic cloves finely diced ( I grow my own garlic which has so much more flavor than the grocery story garlic and only need to use one clove, but you can purchase farm fresh garlic from Steel Pony Farms.

1/4 yellow onion finely diced

* You can add cilantro, chives, Thai basil to the very end of the cooking process while the soup is still hot but not cooking on the stove top.

Directions

1. Grate (but do not peel) the ginger on the smallest grater hole.

2. Juice the lemon to about 1 tablespoon.

3. Heat the chicken stock, to an almost boil. Skim off any foam.

4. Add the ginger, lemon juice, coconut milk, chili flakes, and salt.

5. Simmer for 10-20 minutes. Season and garnish.

* If you would like to take a class on how to make bone broth, please leave a comment below. I can set one up for all of us here in Alberta, even in the Northwest Territories if that is where you are reading from.

Enjoy and be healthy, happy and kind. You are worth it and this world needs you.

~xo Sharlyn