Suzie the Foodie’s Super Immunity Soup

This weekend I was sick with the tummy flu and all by myself. I got tired of feeling sick and dragged my butt into the kitchen and made my favourite homemade recipe to cure the “feeling like crap” blues: my super immunity soup. I will admit, this recipe changes on a regular basis. It is flexible. Feel free to change it up. I also made my own chicken stock for it but it is not necessary. Just do what you gotta do to feel better!

Well look at all those veggies! Yes, there is a ton of chopping involved. If you are not feeling well enough to chop maybe a loved one will make this for you? Me, I have to do it all on my own but when I am not feeling well chopping can be quite meditative. I rough chopped two carrots, 2 stalks of celery, 1 cup of mushrooms and 1 onion.

I also finely chopped up 1/2 a big bunch of kale (I froze the rest), dandelion greens and Chinese cabbage. If you do not have any of these ingredients just chop up a bunch of whatever greens you have: spinach, bok choy…

On the side I finely chopped around 1-2 tbsp of ginger, 3 cloves of garlic and grated a nice wedge of ginger. I also diced up 1 cup of extra firm tofu. This recipe also requires some dried mushrooms, soy sauce, sesame oil and miso.

Saute the tofu in some olive oil with the grated ginger, 1 tbsp of soy sauce and a drizzle of sesame oil and some cracked black pepper. Saute until golden and then set aside.

In the same pot heat up some olive oil to medium heat and add the carrots, celery, mushrooms and onions. Saute for five minutes. Add ginger and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add greens, stir in and cover for 3 minutes.

While veggies are cooking pour hot water over dried mushrooms, I used shiitake for additional super food healing power. I also usually steep a piece of seaweed in the broth but it is a lot more expensive on the east coast than the west. Add the mushrooms with their liquid, 1-2 tbsp of soy sauce and add enough broth to cover all the veggies. Simmer for 15 minutes. Take 1/2 tbsp of miso per person and put it at the bottom of a large bowl. Ladle some of the broth on top of the miso and stir to dissolve (you never want to directly cook miso). Add a touch of sesame oil and then add the soup and some noodles if desired:

Does that not scream healthy AND yummy?

Miso is very salty so between the miso and the soy sauce, there is no real need to season the broth with salt, just black pepper. If there is not enough flavour, add more miso.

This makes a lot of soup! I will be eating it for days as I recover from the flu. Yes, it is a lot of chopping but when you really need to boost up your immunity and kick illness to the curb this will help. I do not know how many times I have made this soup and it has saved me and brought me back to health.

Isn’t food amazing?!

Comments

Steph says
September 7, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Looks delicious! If only I could get someone to make it for me when I’m feeling rundown. I’ll definitely bookmark this one. Thanks for sharing & glad you’re feeling better!
kim says
September 7, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Suzie, Does it freeze well? I’ll post the question on Facebook!
Suzie the Foodie says
September 7, 2009 at 4:48 pm
It’s true, it’s hard to make for yourself when you aren’t feeling well, nice if someone else would make it!
Kim, well, I don’t know the tofu would handle being frozen and thawed, I rarely freeze anything but I don’t see why now. I probably would have less waste if I did freeze it, I can never eat the entire batch. Give it a shot and see what happens!
aliceinparis says
September 7, 2009 at 9:59 pm
I will definitely be trying this!!! It sounds so healthy and good for you:) Big yum on this one:)
tournesol says
September 8, 2009 at 6:04 am
Wow Suzie that looks really GOOD! Feel better.
Bohemian Single Mom says
September 8, 2009 at 12:32 pm
WOW!!
My daughter will LOVE this…she loves mushrooms and tofu and all the other ingredients. And what a great dinner in the coming fighting-off-the-flu-season.
Super beautiful pics Suzie!!!
Hope it helped you feel better.
pixiemama says
October 19, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Oh, yum. I wish this would magically appear in front of me. You must have incredible energy stores if you can make this when you are SICK! I don’t have the energy to make such an involved recipe when I am well!
Suzie Ridler says
October 19, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Pixiemama, yes, it’s best to make the soup as you feel a cold coming on and not wait like I just did because now I have no energy to make it! And I never happen to have tofu lying around, LOL. Best to make a big batch in the fall and then freeze it.
Anne Chisholm says
December 14, 2009 at 9:26 pm
This is a great recipe. I included a link to it on my blog http://things2dooutside.blogspot.com/
Knittylizzy says
May 22, 2010 at 1:38 am
Thanks Suzy! My partner is cooking up the soup in the kitchen for me right now, to help me with my pneumonia. It smells amazing, I can’t wait to try it!

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