Beet Borscht Curry Soup

I may have made a small breakthrough in the creative cooking department! I was making Borscht soup the other day because I wanted to use up the beets I had had in the fridge for a while. I needed cabbage for the recipe so I asked for cabbage from the organics delivery this week, saving me a trip to the grocery store. When the organics delivery arrived, the cabbage was there, as requested. I started preparing the soup, starting with chopping and sautéing onions and chopping up the cabbage. While that was cooking, I scrubbed and grated the beets and added them to the pot. Alas, I had neglected to pay attention to the herbs that the recipe calls for: caraway seeds, dill, anise or cumin. All I had was cumin. Now what? The soup tasted bland, like warm beet juice. I happened to have some fresh coriander and it’s my favourite herb. So I took a few leaves and tested it on a small sampling of soup. It was good, so I chopped up some more and added it to the pot. Then I thought, if coriander makes it good, maybe some red curry paste will make it even better! I did a small taste test first. It was very good. So I added a teaspoonful to the pot and stirred it in. Now we had something I could enjoy!

So Fresh Beet Borscht becomes Fresh Beet Borscht Curry with fresh cilantro! Who knew such an unusual combination would taste so good? And I’m neither Polish nor East Indian. My parents were English, so I should actually have no taste buds at all.

Now I feel compelled to the share the complete recipe. Here it is:

Sally’s Beet Borscht Curry Soup with Fresh Cilantro

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

½ tsp cumin

2 cups of cabbage (about ½ a head)

2 cups of grated beets, juice reserved

6 cups of vegetable stock or water

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp red curry paste

½ cup of chopped cilantro

1. Sauté onions, cumin and cabbage over medium heat until cabbage is soft. 2. Add beets and stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat & simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. 3. Stir in reserved beet juice, lemon juice, curry paste, salt and pepper. Heat but do not boil. 4. Add cilantro before serving.

This is a considered a cleansing soup. Remember liquids help flush toxins from the body. And cabbage is a cleansing vegetable, detoxifying the intestinal tract, liver and kidneys. Beets have a cleansing effect on the liver as well and aid the digestive system and the lymphatic system. They also flush out uric acid and table salt. Beets tone the blood and build red blood cells.

Consuming beets (or corn) is an opportunity to test for gut transit time - the amount of time it takes your system to process and eliminate food, and an indication of the health of your digestive system. To determine if your gut transit time is too fast or too slow, write down the time you consume this soup. Your stool should be a reddish colour 12-18 hours later. Longer transit time equals more risk of Candida, colon cancer, diverticulitis, and/or constipation. Shorter transit time equals malabsorption and/or diarrhea.

I hope you enjoy this blend of flavours, and take the opportunity to check your transit time. If it is not appropriate, seek the help of a naturopath or nutritionist to get you back on track.

Green smoothies: food or drink?

Pale pink smoothie!

It was brought to my attention after the nutrition seminar, by a friend who shall remain nameless (to protect the innocent), that she had heard that it was advisable to chew your smoothie to get the most out of the first stage of digestion. So I have been investigating that question and in the process have come across smoothie naysayers who believe that smoothies are not healthy because they are blended at high speeds and therefore losing nutrients.

To address the first question, it seems that chewing makes sense since digestion begins in the mouth. On the other hand, when there is nothing to chew??? So you have two options to improve digestion of smoothies. Drink slowly and warm up the smoothie in your mouth so that the enzymes can be blended into the food and start the breakdown. You will enhance digestion and have the benefits of greater absorption of the nutrients.  I think if the smoothie is completely smooth, then some of the work of digestion that would normally take place in the mouth has been done for you. Just let the salivary enzymes swirl before swallowing.

Or, you can add chunks to a smoothie by adding chopped banana or seedy fruits like strawberries, raspberries or blueberries etc. that force you to chew the seeds. Also a good idea. Don’t just swallow the seeds whole which would be easy to do. It’s like soup: eat your soup and eat your smoothie!

Now this question of smoothies not being good for you. As far as I can determine, blending at high speeds for short periods is the least harmful to the nutrient content of the food. Heat is detrimental and this why the Vitamix, Thermomix and Blendtec machines are superior. They do not allow heat buildup. This is also why so many smoothie recipes call for several cups of ice or frozen fruits – to keep the temperature down. Using the tamper also helps to speed up the blending process, keeping the blending time short. (I don’t bother with ice though because it is better to drink liquids at room temperature for better absorption.)

I think there are great benefits to having a smoothie on a regular basis. But it is not something that should replace whole foods. A smoothie complements a well-balanced diet. The anecdotal evidence is too convincing. So many people have benefited from drinking their greens. Just make sure you make your smoothie and drink it the same day for best results.

Blending machines that retain the fiber give you the best nutrition. But even those that don’t offer certain advantages like getting all the vitamins and minerals and phytochemicals. Naysayers be damned, the evidence is in: drink your greens, slim down and get your energy back!

And remember: Drink it slowly, at room temperature, and try chewing your smoothie.