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Maybe it's the lack of sunshine or that feeling of being so cold, you can feel it down to your bones, but soup will warm you up and can have you feeling better in no time. And the best soup to help beat the winter doldrums is vegetable soup, because it's not only comforting but healthy and nutritious as well, and we know that all those vitamins, especially the B's, can help make you feel better both physically and mentally.
This blog doesn't include recipes, as you can find a million recipes for vegetable soup online — although one of our personal favorites is rich, sweet, creamy, nutritious Easy Sweet Potato Soup, which takes only 40 minutes to make, and is made with our very own Muzzarelli Farms Sweet Potatoes.
Soup is not just easy to make, but preparing it can be a Zen-like experience. As you sauté your garlic and onion, the delightful scent wafts through the kitchen and your cares are carved away with each chop of your diced celery and carrots. By the time you add in the remaining vegetables, you've forgotten about the cold winds, freezing rain and the icicles forming on the roof outside!
The kind of soup you create is often determined by what you have around the house. Got some chicken? Make Chicken Noodle soup. Got some beef chuck? Sounds like stew time! For our Vegan and vegetarian friends, use vegetable stock and spare the meat – soup is as cathartic for you as it is for our carnivorous friends.
Soup can be the attitude adjuster you need on the days when the weather calls for a "wintry mix." Just lower your stuffy head over that bowl of produce-inspired goodness and let the steam rise into your nostrils. Mmmmm… that's the good stuff!
Soup is nourishing, and not just in the dietary sense (although yes, all those vegetables do pack a good bowl of soup full of vitamins and nutrients, which also has a lot to do with why they help us recover when we're sick). The perfect bowl, cup or crock of vegetable soup nourishes us on a spiritual level. It can provide comfort. It invites togetherness, because soup is perfect for eating and sharing with others. Make a big pot of soup, have some for yourself now, and pack the rest into four or five containers. You can even give some savory soup to your friends and loved ones to brighten their day and warm their hearts.
Soup is far more than the combination of broth, beans, escarole, carrots and whatever else you put in it. It is the fruit of your labor of love. The result of your creativity. It is cooking, healing, and sharing.
