THE IMMUNE GUIDE

Recipe | Nourishing chicken soup

This one is two recipes, so a two step process. It looks like a lot of work, but really it’s all thrown together very quickly. Making chicken stock with a whole chicken is a great way to meal prep for the week ahead, as you can use the stock and cooked chicken for multiple meals. You can use any vegetables you have on hand, the same goes with herb and seasonings. Any noodle works well with this, as does cooked rice.

Ingredients:

Chicken stock:

1 good quality chicken

1-2 chicken feet (optional)

2 onions, quartered

1 leek, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 head garlic, halved

Sprig fresh thyme

Handful fresh parsley

2 bay leaves

Pinch sea salt

1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns

Noodle soup:

2 cups chicken stock

5cm knob ginger, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

Buckwheat noodles, cooked according to directions on the packet

3 broccolini or handful of greens

Handful of shredded chicken

2 eggs

1 carrot, julienned

1 spring onion, thinly sliced

Season with quality fish sauce to taste

Fresh coriander, chilli, flaked seaweed and sesame to serve

Method:

1. Start by making the chicken stock. Place all of the ingredients into a a tight fitting stockpot. Add cold water until the chicken is just covered. Bring to a boil, skim off any foam that rises to the top, then reduce the heat to very low. The water should be barely simmering. Cover with a lid and simmer for about 1hr 15 minutes.

2. Carefully remove the whole chicken from the stockpot and put it on a shallow dish. Leave the feet and vegetables to continue slowly simmering. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, pull all of the meat off the bones. Reserve a handful for the soup and place the rest in a container to use for other meals throughout the week. Add the wings, bones and frame back into the stockpot, place the lid back on and continue to simmer on low for at least another 2 hours. Strain, reserving 2 cups for the soup. Store in jars in the fridge or freezer to use for later meals.

3. To make the chicken soup, place 2 cups of broth into a small saucepan. Add the ginger and garlic, and bring to a gentle simmer.

4. While the stock is infusing with garlic and ginger, cook the noodles according to the directions on the packet.

5. Add the broccolini or greens to the ginger and garlic stock, along with a handful of the reserved shredded chicken. Add a good splash of fish sauce, taste and adjust seasoning if need be. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

6. In the meantime, fry two eggs until crispy. Alternatively, you can drop 2 eggs into the broth to poach in the stock.

7. Put the cooked noodles into a soup bowl. Pour over the prepared soup, top with the cooked eggs, raw carrot, spring onions, coriander, chilli, flaked seaweed and sesame seeds.

As the weather starts cooling down it's that time of the year when the immune system and digestive system both seem to need some extra attention. Many tend to just focus on how to support their immune system but really most of this lives in the gut.. so your attention really needs to shift to this. 

To me the foundation of immune health is the microbiome and the best ways for you to look after yours through the colder months are:

1. Avoid/ reduce some specific inflammatory foods that elicit an immune response. 

• alcohol
• industrial seed oils
• refined sugar
• gluten
• processed packaged foods

 2. Include more nourishing foods.

• bone broths/ meat stocks (like the recipe above) 
• foods packed with vitamin C: camu camu, acerola cherry, amla berry, kakadu plum
• lots of ginger
• lots of raw garlic OR my little tip is to add a couple of cloves of garlic to some raw honey and make one powerful immune elixir
• medicinal mushrooms (serve a wonderful person for the immune system)
• lots of grass fed fats such as egg yolks, tallow, butter and ghee which contain a high amount of naturally occurring vitamin D
• good quality shellfish and red meat so you are getting ample amounts of zinc
• Sea based products such as kelp & seaweed for the iodine 

3. Include some specific supplement support:

• colostrum: which includes a big dose of lactoferrin which is an absolute powerhouse for the gut and immune system
• collagen: this is going to help improve the tight junctions of the intestinal wall which supports immune health
  
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• cod liver oil: packed with fat soluble vitamins such as vitamin D ( I use rosita cod liver oil)
• trace minerals which are found in our fulvic and humic concentrate
  
  
  
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4. Lifestyle practices:

• daily sun exposure. Even if you feel there is no sun, it's important to still get outside (ideal time is first thing in the morning OR before 9am)
• light/ moderate movement: daily walks, yoga, pilates, swimming and resistance training (don't do this if you are sick) 
• Prioritise sleep! 
• epsom salt and bentonite clay baths
• sauna use