Soup is the new juice: Sip your way to health

Soup is hot. It is the new juice, a fabled, ancient soothing solution to ease joint pain, heal the gut and help our bodies through cold winter days.

Two new books provide homemade soup solutions - from a fast red lentil soup to deep-flavored meat broths - that simmer on the stove for 16 hours or more. One book, "brodo," will appeal to fans of the Paleo diet lifestyle, from a chef who backed down a midlife crisis with broth stewed from organic meat bones.

“Soupure” is a company founded by two California fans of clean eating. The vegan and vegetarian broths in their book, “The Soup Cleanse,” were hailed last winter by actress Gwyneth Paltrow on her “goop.” health and lifestyle blog.

This year, Paltrow remains high on soup, with homemade “Detox Hot & Sour Soup" with chicken broth listed as a nighttime staple of her blog's 2016 cleanse regimen. Both juice and soup cleanses help our bodies because they allow our digestive systems to rest. Soup is superior, these authors maintain, because it packs extra nutrients, protein and fiber without the natural sugars of pressed juice.

"Our grandmas had it right. They were making soup from scratch," said Angela Blatteis, co-author of "The Soup Cleanse."

Commercially-prepared soup too often contains monosodium glutamate, a known inflammatory agent. Long, slow cooking at home is required, she added, to extract collagen and other nutrients from bones.

With or without meat, broth remains a make-at-home venture in Louisville, where it’s rare to find stock made from wholesome ingredients without preservatives for purchase over the counter. Advocates of simple, homemade food, preferably from local farmers and producers, are powering this home kitchen trend.

That said, I found two outlets in town where you can get plain and hearty broth ready made.

Zoup, the Fourth Street fast casual eatery downtown, is packed with customers this time of year seeking warm soup.  At Kroger and Meijer stores, you can also buy the chain's quarts of “Good.  Really Good Chicken Broth” and “Good. Really Good Veggie Broth,” Zoup publicist Lateshia Dowell said.  Both are advertised on Zoup’s website “as the first premium broth good enough to drink.”

At the Bardstown Road Farmers Market, Duck Duck Beet will be back in late February on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon with bone broth made with “water, marrow, shank, knuckle and pig foot.”  Vendor Jared Wilkinson has developed the broth following from his “Community Supported Kitchen,” based at Foxhollow Farm in Crestwood.

Recipe | Grass-fed beef broth with ginger

Commercial outlets like these that sell healing broth are called “brothals” by the nonprofit Weston A. Price Foundation, a longtime advocate of the healing properties of bone broth and a proponent of sustainable, organic small farms and nutrient-dense, whole food.

“What America needs is healthy fast food and the only way to provide this is to put brothals in every town … that provide the basic ingredients for soups and sauces and stews,” said Sally Fallon Morell, founding president of the nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.  “Brothals will come when Americans recognize that the food industry has prostituted itself to short cuts and huge profits, shortcuts that cheat consumers of the nutrients they should they should get in their food and profits that skew the economy towards industrialization in farming and food processing.”

Rejecting convenience food by returning to the kitchen to make simple stock and soups is an abiding theme in both “brodo” and “The Soup Cleanse" cookbooks.

After a health turnaround powered by soup, Hearth Restaurant executive chef Marco Canora said he sips his broth throughout the day in lieu of coffee.

"After 20 years of carb-loading, smoking, and drinking my face off, I was deep in a hole of inflammation that resulted in gout, crazy-high cholesterol, extra weight, zero energy and the beginnings of insulin resistance, the precursor of diabetes," Canora said in the introduction to "brodo," adding broth was "the world's first comfort food."

Recipe | Red lentil & caramelized onion soup

Research on healing his body led him to embrace the broth tradition of Tuscan mother and move toward a modified Paleo diet.

"As I learned about its healing properties, I made an effort to drink it more often. And the better it made me feel, the more strongly I felt about sharing the amazing goodness that is bone broths with my customers," Canora said.

More than 50 soup recipes are found within "The Soup Cleanse," a book two mothers wrote after futile searches for store-bought soup "that wasn't packed with salt, sugar, cream, fillers, preservatives and other funky stuff."

Authors Blatteis and Vivienne Vella both left their jobs to create a healing soup company, Soupure. "The Soup Cleanse" book followed that venture, and the company is fast at work to provide home delivery nationwide, Blatteis said.

"We think the best way to cleanse is to stop eating and drinking processed and refined foods," she said in the introduction to the book. The book outlines a soup cleansing regimen based on the recipes therein. Their vegetable-packed soups help soothe the gut, boost digestive enzymes, provide fiber and provide convenience when you batch meals in the freezer. Soups, she added, are more satisfying than "cold juice that is void of fiber and protein."

There is a focus in the book on power foods like almonds, carrots, bananas, flaxseed, ginger, lemon, spinach and turmeric. Some soups are speedy, like the "Red Lentil with Caramelized Onion" recipe below.

Sensational, hearty soups pepper Ghyslain menu

"I couldn't stand being duped by vendors who would say their soup was healthy but it would have preservatives," Blatteis said of the book's focus on helping people get into the kitchen to make soup on their own for a cleanse lasting one, three or five days.

A chance encounter led Paltrow to "The Soup Cleanse" authors, Blatteis said, adding "goop" has asked for another soup recipe to appear on Paltrow's blog.

"The whole thing has been a series of luck," Blatteis said. "We believe in our products. We put our best soup forward."

Jere Downs can be reached at (502) 582-4669, Jere Downs on Facebook and JDowns@Courier-Journal.com

Grass-fed Beef Broth with Ginger

Makes about 5 quarts

To find grass fed beef bones, check out one of the winter farmers markets in town on Saturdays in downtown New Albany or on Bardstown Road. Without the time to plan ahead, I had to scrounge for grain-feed beef bones, finding an affordable bunch of beef knuckles for about $2.50 per pound at Frank's Meat & Produce, 3342 Preston Highway. (502) 363-3989. You could also try Kingsley Meats at 2701 Taylorsville Road. (502) 459-7585. I made heavy use of the crock pot, not being able to tend a pot on the stove for between 12 and 16 hours.

5 pounds beef neck bones

8 pounds beef knuckles

5 pounds beef shin

3 large onions

6 celery stalks, coarsely chopped

2 large carrots, scrubbed and coarsely chopped

3/4 cup tomato paste

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

1/2 bunch fresh thyme

Fine sea salt

Fresh ginger to taste

Put roasted bones and shin meat in a 16-quart pot. Add cold water and cover by 2 to 3 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat, about one hour, skimming off the foamy impurities every 15 to 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and pull the pot to one side so it is partially off the burner. Simmer for 2 hours, skimming once or twice. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Arrange necks and knuckles in a single layer on rimmed baking sheets. Roast until well-browned, about one hour, flipping bones after 30 minutes.

Add the onions, celery, carrots, tomato paste, peppercorns and thyme, pushing them down into the liquid. Continue to simmer for 12 to 16 hours, skimming as needed and occasionally checking to make sure the bones are still fully submerged.

Use a skimmer or spoon to remove the solids and discard. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh strainer. Season with salt to taste and let it cool. Transfer the cooled broth to storage containers (leaving any sediment in the bottom of the pot) and refrigerate overnight. Spoon off any solidified fat from the top and store the broth for up to five days in the refrigerator or freeze for up to 6 months. Peel and grate fresh ginger root on top for a splash of heat before sipping.

Source: "Brodo" by Marco Canora

Red Lentil & Caramelized Onion Soup

This soup satisfies the hungry and soothes the most delicate stomachs on a chilly winter day. The lentils are high in fiber and protein while the onions lend sweet flavor.  For a heartier repast, you can serve this soup spooned over brown rice.  When I cannot find yellow beets, I substitute a winter squash, like butternut.  

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 shallots, diced

4 cloves garlic, chopped

3 carrots, diced

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 yellow beets, peeled and diced.

6 cups roasted vegetable broth or a store-bought low-sodium version

1 1/4 cups red lentils

1 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste

1/4 teaspoon pepper, plus more to taste

1 yellow onion, thinly sliced

10 cardamom pods, of 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon coriander powder

Heat a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. When it dances, add the shallots, garlic, carrots, turmeric and cinnamon.  Cook until the shallots soften and the mixture becomes aromatic, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add the beets and broth and bring to a boil. Add lentils, salt and pepper and reduce heat to simmer for 15 minutes until lentils are soft and vegetables are tender.

While soup cooks, prepare caramelized onions. If using cardamom pods, crush them and remove the seeds. Grind the seeds into a powder with a mortar and pestle. Heat in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and heat until the oil dances. Add the onion, cardamom and coriander. Keep the heat high so the onions begin to brown, stirring continuously. If onions start sticking to the pan, add a bit of water.

Continue cooking for 10 minutes or so until the onions are caramelized and golden brown. Reduce heat if necessary to keep them from burning. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Fill bowls with soup and top with a tablespoon of caramelized onions, or stir onions into the soup.

Source: The Soup Cleanse by Angela Blatteis and Vivienne Vella