Recipe: Easy Immune-Boosting Soup

Ingredients:

1 organic chicken

2 onions

A handful of thyme

A few garlic cloves

To your taste: chopped organic celery, carrots, shitake mushrooms, grated fresh turmeric

Instructions:

• Start with 1 organic chicken, slowly simmering in a large saucepan of water.

[Check out this YouTube video: “Why you should cook chicken in water.”]

• Add vegetables to the water. 2 strong onions, to your taste preference some organic celery and carrots, immune-boosting shitake mushrooms, grated fresh turmeric (which is famous for its anti-inflammatory properties), a handful of antibacterial thyme, and a few cloves of garlic.

• Cover the pot and simmer for about 2 hours, then switch off the heat but leave the lid on, and leave overnight. In the morning, you should have a jelly-like collagen-rich stock to work with.

• Carefully lift out the chicken; pull off the meat, throw away the bones and give the skins to the dogs, cats, or foxes.

• Strain the stock, and now you can add the root vegetables of your choice. Personally, I love to add potatoes and butternut squash, or legumes such as brown lentils or kidney beans, and some leeks and mushrooms for flavor.

[Also try: “Recipe: Anti-Inflammatory Chickpea Curry.”]

• Cook these vegetables in your stock until they are soft and either blend smooth, or leave for a chunky soup. You can put the chicken meat back at this point if you want to.

• You should now have a lovely thick broth, full of nutrients, which is easy to digest and very comforting. Just before you serve, you might like to add a handful of freshly chopped chives for extra flavor and antibacterial qualities.

Adapted excerpt from Secrets From A Herbalist's Garden: A Magical Year of Plant Remedies by Jo Dunbar. Available May 2022 from Watkins Publishing / Penguin Random House Publishers Services.