I always proud myself as beign immune to every possible germ, virus or bacteria. I give the credits to the big ammounts of vegetables and fruit I consume, my 2,5 years of working in a hospital surrounded by all kinds of germs and my good genes (?). But when it comes to it, nobody is too immune to anything. So, for two days I experienced a medium high fever (about 37.8 C) and a runny nose. Which consequently had me on my bed for two days, watching countless episodes of The Good Wife.
It was absolutely amazing (apart from the fever part and feeling like my head is about to explode)! I rested for a good ammount of time, binge-watched Netflix and ate soup to keep me warm. The only thing missing was my mum asking me if I was okay. But after these two days I completedly recovered, so to say it wasn't that big of a deal and maybe I wanted to relax a bit on my couch and have a reason to watch American TV series. Who knows?
As if I knew that I was going to be sick the other day, I decided to make a soup in the morning to enjoy after my class of exptremely hardcore Pilates. There is a trainer where I go on Wednesdays who is really pushing us to our limits. I don't complain, it's a very nice exercise. But afterwards you need something really good to restore muscle loss and feel full. Furthermore, the weather was extremely cold that day, so it felt completely right to go for a soothing, hot soup.
I was looking at recipes online and on my cookbooks and came across this amazing soup with chicken and sweet potato, which was asking for an ingredient I would never add myself in a soup. Almond butter! Yeap, you read that right. Almond butter in a soup. I did some research online to see if it was a thing and I was surprised to find all those different kind of recipes including it as an ingredient. I was hooked again!
This recipe was inspired by Martha Steward's book "Clean Slate", which I love since I purchased it. It contains simple recipes, with fine and healthy ingredients. I use it whenever I want something nourishing for my body or when I feel my metabolism is a bit sluggish. I am against (almost) cleanses and I prefer to eat healthier if I want to cut back on processed foods and help my body to reset. No strict diets needed, I learned that a few years back. We only need to keep attention to what our body needs and how it reacts with certain foods. If you feel like you function better with protein, eat more protein. If you need those carbohydrates, eat them, but try switching to whole grains that contain fiber, which is better for your body.
So, I will skip a lot of talking here, to actually tell you about the recipe. The original one asked for collards. As I didn't have any collards and had no idea where to get them here in Zurich, I skipped them and added some carrots instead. I changed a bit the measurements and added a few ingredients of my own. Nevertheless, the soup turned out to be A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! My boyfriend love it as well! The almond butter gave this soup something so earthy and pure. I cannot really describe it so well, you have to taste it to see for yourself.
Almond, chicken, sweet potato and carrot soup with ginger
ingredients (serves 4 persons)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 large sweet potato peeled
1 white onion
2 garlic gloves
1 large carrot peeled
pepper
1 teaspoon grinded ginger or two teaspoons fresh ginger
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 cup hot water
4 cups of chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
salt to season
2 spring onions
lime slices to serve
How do I make it?
1. First chop finely all of your vegetables (sweet potato, onion, carrot, garlic and sping onions). Leave the spring onions to the side.
2. Fill a medium pot with the 4 cups of chicken broth and set to boil. Add the sweet potato, carrot, onion and garlic to the pot and let them boil while you cut your chicken breasts into small pieces.
3. Reduce heat and add the chicken. Cover your pot and let it shimmer up to 20 minutes.
4. In a bowl whisk together the almond butter and the hot water until your get a fine mixture.
5. Add the sping onions and ginger to the pot and season with some salt and pepper if you wish.
6. Finally, pour in the almond butter mixture and mix with a big spoon. Turn off heat.
7. Serve immediately into bowls with some lemon or lime slices.
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