Soothing Chicken and (Cauliflower) Rice Soup

Plus my tips for speedy and natural cold recovery!

Happy Thursday, and if you are new - WELCOME to Cooking in Color! This is where we cook easy, delicious, saucy, colorful meals made from whole, unprocessed foods, and we make it fun and learn important stuff about metabolic health while doing it.

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This week it’s all about bone broth (sorry, not as sexy as biscuits or halloumi I know) and cold season tips, because last week and I had my first cold for the year and I was urgently trying to get better since I’m getting married next week! 😍😬

With this newsletter, I’m always going to keep it real with things I’m ACTUALLY cooking and enjoying each week, and lately it’s been a lot of soup!!

Cold recovery protocol:

Briefly, here’s my personal protocol for shortening and recovering from a cold once you’re already sick (Mia Rigden also has some great tips on cold prevention in this issue of her newsletter). If you are like, I’m just here for the recipes, scroll on down!

Disclaimer: I have no relationship with these companies, this is just my recommendation based on my research and what personally helps me:

• The basics: Of course, the basics are prioritizing sleep, eating nutrient dense whole foods, drinking TONS of water, scaling back on high intensity workouts, and keeping up with your existing supplement routine.

• Propolis: Propolis is made by bees, and it contains a ton of antioxidants and polyphenols called flavonoids. There is some research that indicates it’s antibacterial and antiviral properties can help with everything from wounds to the common cold. I use Beekeepers Propolis Throat Spray 3X a day when I have a cold, and I bring it with me whenever I travel as well. Note, they also have a kid safe version!

• Vitamin C: I buy a big bag of oranges whenever I’m sick, and I also am a huge fan of the Propolis + Vitamin C Liposomal Delivery System from Beekeepers. It doesn’t taste great I will admit, but it has 100mg of propolis and 1,000mg of Vitamin C in a protective phospholipid layer, which naturally mimics the body’s own cell membranes and makes it easier to absorb. All of the Beekeepers products are free of artificial colors and preservatives, fillers, alcohol, gluten, GMOs and refined sugars.

• Nasal rinse: I am a huge fan of the Neil Med Sinus Rinse because it’s so easy to add 1 packet of the nasal rinse with distilled water in the provided bottle. There is actually solid research on the benefits of nasal irrigation, and in addition to doing this 2X a day when I’m sick, I try to remember to do it every time I get home from being on an airplane or traveling. My Dad also personally swears by doing this every day, no matter what (hi Dad! 👋🏼)

• Using alternatives to conventional cough drops and cold medicine: Halls cough drops for example have artificial dies like Red 40 and Blue 2 as well as glucose syrup, sucralose, and other fillers. Some studies show a link between these dyes and increased ADHD or hyperactivity in children and other studies show an improvement in behavior and attention once the dyes were eliminated. Regardless, we don’t want to confuse our cells with artificial crap, when they are already trying to work extra hard to get us healthy! This is why, again, my go to is Beekeepers cough drops. For a DayQuil and NyQuil alternative, I use the ColdCalm homeopathic tablets. I’ll be honest, I’m not a complete purist, if my congestion is REALLY bad, I will take a Sudafed. But, I usually try all of this stuff first.

• Bone Broths: Read on for more on bone broth, and my most healing recipe from the week. Nothing characterizes ancestral food as much as nourishing broth. Bone broth is rich in the elements of cartilage, collagen, and healing amino acids. When I’m sick I have bone broth 2X a day, often in a soup and I even sometimes just heat some up in a mug and drink it like a tea! 🤪

• IV Drip: Last week was the first time I did this, but I noticed a BIG difference in recovery the next day from doing a Vitamin IV drip (Magnesium, B Vitamins, Vitamin C, Zinc). This was a little extra of me, I’ll admit, but with easy access in LA and my wedding next week, I was extra motivated to give this a go. For those in LA, I went to Pause and had a great experience.

Even just looking at that made me feel better

Lets talk about broth! It’s not as sexy or fun as a healthy remake of a brownie or a biscuit but bone broth has been a game-changer for me, makes me feel great, and makes soups, strews, or other meals taste even more flavorful, so please read on!

Nourishing broth dates back to the stone age, and if you want to read the full history and better understand the science behind broth, I recommend the book Nourishing Broth by Sally Morell.

“The body’s ability to repair connective tissue such as bone, tendon, ligament, cartilage, skin, hair and nails diminishes with age and ill health. Bone broth, with it’s rich dissolves of collagen, cartilage, bone and marrow gives the body “the right stuff” to rebuild and rejuvenate.” - Sally Morell

In the meantime, I’ll summarize for you some of my key takeaways and the reasons why I love bone broth:

• Collagan: Collagen is the glue that holds the body together (the word legit comes from kolla, Greek word for glue) and cooking breaks down collagenous protein into gelatin which provides the amino acids the body needs to make the “glue” we call connective tissue.

• Cartilage regeneration: Without cartilage we wouldn’t be able to move our joints and wiggle our ears! Cartilage rich bone broth has glycine, proline, glutamine, proteoglycans which can actually help you regenerate your cartilage.

• Protein absorption: I love swapping veggie broth or chicken broth with a bone broth because of not only the added nutrients, but added protein power. Bone broth is NOT a complete protein, but when broth is consumed as part of a colorful and diverse diet, it actually improves overall protein digestion.

• Four Key Amino Acids: In my Stanford Nutrition Course, I learned that proline, glycine, glutamine and alanine (the 4 main amino acids in broth) are nonessential amino acids, meaning the body can theoretically manufacture them. However, that’s realistically only true for people who have really really great health and eat very nutrient-dense diets (which is hard in our modern environment). It helps to get those amino acids in via a broth, and by adding meat, vegetables, and herbs to the broth, we can easily get all of those essential amino acids as well.

• Minerals to support bone density: Broth made from bones provides a ton of bioavailable mineral like calcium, magnesium, and other trace minerals essential for bone health. Now, the exact amount will depend on the health, age, diet and environment of the animal. This is why to get the most bang for your buck, it’s best to use organic and regeneratively farmed animal bones in your broth if possible. I know it’s more expensive, but I always think about one of my favorite Rob Lustig quotes “You’ll either pay the Doctor of the Farmer, but either way you’ll pay.”

• Makes me feel better about eventually composting/tossing the bones!!: We try to minimize food waste, so also just love that I can get something out of the bones before they eventually get composted. Did you know in the US 30-40% of our food supply is wasted? Insane.

Tips to make your bone broth as nourishing as possible:

• Use best quality ingredients you can find - like free range, organic chickens and bones from organic, regeneratively raised meats

  • If you do have access to chicken or pig feet, add those in as they are the highest in gelatin and will help your broth gel! If someone brought me some pig feet as a gift I’d genuinely be so thrilled 🤣

  • Ideally, you’d use raw bones, but I also use bones that have been cooked because….well life.

• Water to bone ratio: When you make broth, the water should just cover the bones otherwise it will be too water-y. If you want to make a double batch, you do re-use the bones and add more water for a take 2.

• Add aromatics: Save your carrots, celery, garlic and onion scraps (or other veggie scraps) throughout the week and add those in.

• Don’t forget vinegar: Adding a small amount of vinegar helps extract minerals from the bones and vegetables, and it won’t change the flavor of the broth. I usually do 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar.

• Keep it low and slow: If the stock goes to a boil, the heat will break down the collagen fibers and then you might get a less gel-y result. To make this easy for myself, I just do it in my slow cooker or instant pot on the slow cook setting.

My weekly bone broth recipe:

• Rotisserie chicken bones (and any other bones we have around from the week)

• 6-8 cups filtered water

• 1/4 cup vinegar of choice (I usually do apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar)

• Leftover veggie compost like carrots, celery, onion etc.

• Overgrown herbs form my garden

• 3-4 cloves of garlic

• Heavy pinch of salt

There she goes!

I do this in the instant pot on slow cook for 22 hours, and then I strain it into a large wide mouth mason jar and keep in the fridge to use for the week. If I don’t think we will use it all, I’ll freeze some in a silcone souper cube.

Notes on the Chicken and Cauliflower Rice Soup Recipe

Now that we’ve talked about the broth part of this recipe, let’s chit-chat about some of the other ingredients:

• Cauliflower rice swap: Chicken and rice soup’s are very popular, but since I aim to avoid refined grains, keep my blood sugar stable and make my meals as nutrient dense as possible, I love swapping cauliflower rice for white rice in this soup. The cauliflower addition also sneaks in some more veggies, and since I always keep a large bag of frozen cauliflower rice from Costco in the freezer it makes it super easy to just throw into the soup. Cauliflower rice also makes a great swap in a chicken noodle soup, or you can use my favorite Chef Kiss Lupin bean pasta if you are craving more of a chicken noodle variation (code SONJA gives you 10% off).

• Rotisserie Chicken: Of course you could make chicken to throw into this soup, but when I’m sick I want making this to be as EASY as possible so I buy an organic rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods to add in.

Okay now let’s get into the recipe!!

I had this for lunch and dinner 2 days in a row and still loved it by the end

Yields: 6-8 servings

Total time: 30-40 minutes

• Prep time: 10 minutes

• Cook time: 20-30 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 tbsp white miso paste

  • I find the small addition of miso gives the soup a little richer taste without making it taste like a miso soup. Plus, I love to sneak in a little fermented probiotic!

• 3 sticks celery, finely chopped

• 3 large carrots, peeled and finely chopped

• 8 cups bone broth

  • If you want to buy it at the store vs make it, I recommend the brand Bonafide.

• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning

• 2 tsp salt (more to taste)

• dash of pepper

• 3 cups frozen cauliflower rice

• zest and juice from 2 lemons

• 1 full shredded rotisserie chicken

• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped (feel free to always add more!)

Instructions

1. Add 2 tbsp olive oil to the stock pot or your dutch oven and saute garlic and onion for 2-3 minutes.

2. Then add miso paste, celery, and carrots and saute until carrots and celery start to soften (about 4-5 minutes more).

3. Then add in your bone broth, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and cauliflower rice. Bring soup to a boil and then turn down to a simmer and cover for 20 minutes.

4. Finally, add zest and juice from 2 lemons, shredded rotisserie chicken, and parsley and stir.

5. Taste test and adjust seasoning or herbs as you wish. Enjoy!

Swaps and Tips

• Storage: I use wide mouth glass mason jars for storage for the bone broth as well as for the soup - both for the fridge or freezer. If I just want to save an individual portion of soup, I’ll freeze it in a silcone souper cube.

• Swaps: This soup recipe is like a template, you can add in other veggies (I think zucchini would be great here for example) or other proteins.

• Make it vegan or vegetarian: If you want to make this vegan, use vegetable broth and add in some white beans or tofu.

Reel

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Nutritional Info

I’ll sound like a broken record soon, but I really advocate for NOT counting calories and instead focus on getting enough protein, fiber, and a variety of micronutrients. It’s liberating to think in terms of “how much protein, fiber, and color can I get in each meal” vs. “how many calories was this meal.”

This soup has at least 6 colors!

Per serving, makes about 6-8 servings

Calories: 359
Carbohydrates: 7g
Fiber: 2g
Net carbs: 5g
Protein: 41g
Fat: 17g
Sodium: 2150mg
Sugar: 4g

Please share your thoughts, feelings, feedback, swaps, tips - ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING!!

Chefs kisses,

Sonja