Carrot, Beetroot and Lentil Soup

During the autumn and winter months, you will find me making soup at least a couple of times a month. It is one of the easiest things in the world to make and if you are on a budget, it is cheap, wholesome and a filling meal.

The pre-made soup market is booming, but unfortunately many of our favourite brands are chock-full of salt, sugar, fillers and preservatives that are not required by our bodies. They are also expensive. but not as expensive as buying soups from the plethora of sandwich chains that provide a large majority of the working population with our lunch.

Homemade soups are, in my opinion, much tastier and higher in nutritional value. Not only are they significantly cheaper, the other bonus is that you can include whatever ingredients you like as well as make it the consistency you like. Take me, I’m not a lover of liquidised soups, preferring chunky soups that are filling. I prefer to have something that fills my soul rather than leave me hungry. The added bonus being that I avoid the de rigueur slab of bread as I don’t need anything else to fill me up.

Transportation and storage:

• Soup can keep in a saucepan on the hob for a few days, without needing refrigeration (assuming you live in a colder climate such as the UK)
• Re-heating: warm soup in a smaller saucepan rather than re-heating the whole thing. This preserves the nutrients in the soup and also helps with your energy bills.
• Avoid boiling soup as this damages the nutrients and microwaving; nuking soup renders it unrecognisable as food by the body.
• Use a thermos to transport soup – it keeps it warm for hours and removes the re-heating requirement or the need for a bowl if you’re caught short.

Last week, I made a delicious carrot, beetroot & lentil soup which came about from the basic need to use up these root vegetables that were left over from the previous week. I wanted to share it with you all as not only is it super-filling, it is ridiculously easy to make.

1 bunch of carrots (about 8 medium)

1 bunch of beetroot (about 6)

1 cup puy green or red lentils

1 onion

1 litre of chicken stock – either fresh or marigold stock cube

Method:

Chop the onions and gently cook in some olive oil.

Scrub, top and tail and chop carrots and beetroot; add to the onions.

Cook at a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring regularly

Add lentils to the vegetables and pour the stock over the vegetables. The stock ought to reach a third higher than the vegetables. If not, then just add some more water.

Bring the soup to the boil and reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes. Check the vegetables, if they are soft then the soup is ready, if not simmer for 10 minutes longer or until soft to the touch. If you are not eating immediately, you can always turn the heat off and leave the vegetables to cook in the hot liquor without heat.

This bit is up to you – you can either liquidise the soup, mash it to squish the vegetables but retain the lentils or leave as is, like I have.

If the lentils soak up the liquid exponentially, then just add some more water.

Key Nutritional Benefits:

• Carrot and beetroot are abundant in beta-carotenes, the red/yellow/orange anti-oxidants tha are especially good in helping ward off colds.
• Lentils provide B vitamins that are fantastic for energy, immune health and mental clarity. They contain fibre to help keep you regular and bind with toxins and waste products from the body for elimination. Lentils also contain amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, a source of which is very important for those following a vegetarian and vegan diet.

Image by Nick Saltmarsh

Bananas Are Not The Only Fruit.

Bananas have become a staple of the UK diet, breakfast, snacks and desserts, they seem to be ingrained in our psyche. I cannot tell you how many times I used to eat bananas and custard as a kid and teen growing up, bananas and custard, banaba sandwich (with sugar) and watching my gran slice one onto her Bran Flakes every morning. They were marketed as a the tropical wonder-food. ‘Full of potassium’, and ‘help you stay regular’ were the mantras I grew up with. Imagine my surprise when I found out that they weren’t the golden child that commercial growers such as Dole and Chiquita would have us believe.

It is well-documented that bananas have an array of nutrients to offer us, including potassium, one of the most important electrolytes in the body which helps to regulate heart function as well as fluid balance in and outside our cells. Potassium is protective against heart disease, strokes and lowering blood pressure, however, in my experience, they are not the panacea that some would like us to believe. In my opinion, the evidence stacks up against this belief – the banana is the second largest fruit crop in the world but yet, heart disease, blood pressure and strokes are some of the biggest killers in the world.

According to wikipedia, bananas are also naturally radioactive, apparently banana shipments often set off the radiation monitors installed in US ports. Advocates of nuclear power, refer to the ‘banana equivalent dose of radiation’ to support their position. Now I don’t know if this is true, but it is a great ‘apparently’ fact to trundle out at a party…

Banana facts:

The banana plant belongs to the same family as the lily and orchid and comes in hundreds of different varieties. Small ones are found in Thailand, India and Sri Lanka, whilst the more popular large yellow variety is cultured in the Caribbean and South America. There is also Plantain, a greener fruit that is higher in starch but lower in sugar than the ‘regular’ banana found in UK supermarkets.

Banana Nutrition:

The sugar and starch levels are the beginning of the end of my love affair with bananas. A 15cm banana provides 1g of protein, 12g of sugars AND nearly 23g of carbohydrates. For anyone who has looked at the low GI or GL diets, or understand even a little about the action of carbohydrates in the body will know what this means.

When you digest the fruit, your body will get a massive hit of sugars that it has to do something with. You will feel your energy surge, just as you might after a cake or coffee. This is the rush of glucose into the blood stream. When your body has either a) pushed the glucose into cells or b) used up as much glucose as it can, it needs to make sure that all the sugar in the blood stream is safely removed. Unless you are very active there is little chance of this, so the body does something clever, it converts the excess glucose/sugar into fat and stores it for conversion back into glucose when we need it.

From a nutritional perspective, this isn’t the ideal scenario as we aim for energy levels to be constant throughout the day. Energy rollercoaster’s make it harder to refuse the sugar pick-me-up mid morning and evening, which can have a detrimental affect on multiple areas of health. The banana is missing a high percentage of the fundamentals that reduce the impact of carbohydrates after digestion – protein and fibre, which are minimal in a banana, are two such things. Additionally, water content is incomparable to other fruits which increases the calorific impact on the body.

Bananas, like dairy, are mucous forming. Mucoid plaque is naturally produced by the body, but certain foods exacerbate and over-stimulate production resulting in increased absorption difficulty. The pesticides used on bananas and the sulphur that is sprayed on them increases the mucus production, so for those at least four bananas per week, think about how much you cough, whether you have sinus or phlegm issues in comparison to your banana intake.

If you have sensitivity to latex, be extra careful as the banana contains an enzyme called ‘chitinases’ and the ethylene gas used to ripen them prior to retail can increase the presence of these allergenic enzymes.

Breaking the Banana cycle:

So all in all, my view is – ditch the bananas. There are so many other wonderful fruits out there to gorge on. It is a fallacy that you have to have them, or yogurt or milk in smoothies to makes them creamy. The sugar content is what draws people in. But there are lots of other fruits out there which are sweet – strawberries, apples, pears, figs to name but a few. And adding water to a smoothie is sufficient to make it creamy. I promise. After a lifetime of eating bananas I slowly but surely gave them up about 5 years ago. Recently, I was bought a bunch. They stayed in the fruit bowl for a few days and then I couldn’t cope any more and had to file them, in the bin. Unceremoniously. I couldn’t bring myself to eat them. I wish they’d been flowers – much more useful!

Very Berry Smoothie

Jam-packed full of anti-oxidants, potassium, fibre, essential fatty acids and protein. And no banana in sight! Aim for organic varieties only.

1 apple or pear – cored and chopped

½ punt each of blueberries, raspberries and strawberries

a handful each of walnuts and pecans, soaked in water overnight and rinsed thoroughly.

1 handful of sunflower seeds

Two cups of water

Blend together and serve in glasses with a straw and a couple of blueberries on top.

image by Furryscaly