Life is a Minestrone

Wow it’s February already!

Although the first signs of Spring are everywhere, the weather is still chilly and I’ve met a few people who are suffering from colds and coughs. In fact, I am at home today with my daughter, Rosa, who is complaining of a sore throat and feeling unwell.

When I was ill as a child (actually, also as an adult), my Mother would roll up her sleeves, get into the kitchen and start chopping vegetables and chicken to make some minestrone. I would usually complain as it wasn’t my favourite meal. But it’s hard to say no to a vociferous Italian Mother especially when she wants you to eat! If I really couldn’t stomach it, she would encourage me to drink just the minestrone liquid.

Years later, when studying nutritional medicine, I realised my Mother intuitively knew something about healing foods. I learnt how nutritious and healing a chicken minestrone, soup or broth can be:

- stocks and broths are especially beneficial for people who have intestinal problems e.g. allergies because they are very high in nutrients and the gastrointestinal tract can absorb them without having do a lot of work. Stocks and broths contain colloids which are hydrophilic (water loving) thus making them easier to digest.

- chicken contains an amino acid called cysteine, a substance released when you make the soup. This amino acid is similar to the drug acetylcysteine, which is prescribed by doctors to patients with bronchitis. It thins the mucus in the lungs, making it easier to cough out. And hot chicken vapors have been proven more effective than hot water vapors in clearing out the cold in your nose.

- several studies have shown chicken soup as a “relief” for the common cold, not a “cure.” All research agrees that the soup helps break up congestion and eases the flow of nasal secretions. In addition, many say it also inhibits the white blood cells that trigger the inflammatory response (causing sore throats and the production of phlegm).

- gelatine, the odourless, tasteless substance extracted by boiling bones, animal tissues excellent source of minerals, including iodine, chloride, sodium, magnesium and potassium.

- onions, another chicken minestrone regular, contains quercetin, a powerful anti-oxidant that is also a natural anti-histamine, and anti-inflammatory.

As you can probably guess, the recipe this month is minestrone. I’ve chosen Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s recipe because it’s the quickest, easiest and tastes good. My Mother’s recipe is a great deal more laboured and I am happy to forward it. Just send me an email.

Serves 4-6
1.5 ltres water
150g carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium sized onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
150g parsnips, peeled, cores removed and diced
1/4 savor or other green cabbage, stalks removed, finely shredded
2-4 chicken joints (with skin and bones on)
Handful of flat-leaf parsley
Salt and black pepper

If you have other vegetables in the fridge to use up, then add them too. Minestrone is not an exact science.

Bring the water to a gentle simmer in a large saucepan. Add all the vegetables, parsley and chicken but not the cabbage. Simmer gently for about an hour. Remove the chicken joints and remove the meat from the bone. Discard skin and bone. Shred the chicken and return to the saucepan with the cabbage. Cook for another 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Good served with a few shavings of parmesan.

If you add the following ingredients to the above, you will be making a Thai version which is also delicious.

- stick of lemongrass, crushed to release the flavour
- zest and juice of half a lime
- tin of coconut milk
- 1 red chilli pepper, chopped
- little knob of grated ginger
- handful of chopped coriander

Must roll my sleeves up and make some minestrone for my lovely Rosa.

I am lucky to have a sister-in-law who is completely on my wave-length and a good friend. She lives in Paris, loves cooking and, eating fresh and delicious food. She recently sent me a link to author, Michael Pollan’s, Food Rules. The word “rules” was off-putting but having read them, I totally agree.

In a world where there is so much contractictory information about what to eat, this is simple, common-sense advice.

1. Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can’t pronounce, ask yourself, “What are those things doing there?”
2. It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language (think big Mag, Cheetos or Pringles!)
3. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes off.
4. Don’t eat anything that won’t eventually rot. There are exceptions – honey – but as a rule, things like Twiglets that never go off aren’t food.
5. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. Always leave the table a little hungry. Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. In German culture they say, ‘Tie off the sack before it’s full.’
6. Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It’s a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love.
7. Don’t buy food where you buy your petrol. 20% of food is mindlessly eaten in the car.
8. Avoid food products that contain high-fructose corn syrup. Not only does it create fatty deposits in the liver, it is a sign that a product has been highly processed.

World Book Night
You may have heard about this initiative to get us reading a bit more. It’s being organised by publishers, libraries etc and they are giving away 40,000 copies of a specially selected range of 25 books. I applied to be one of the ‘givers’ for the Seamus Heaney Selected Poems and, I am delighted to say, that I have been chosen. Next week I will be receiving 48 copies to give to people who may enjoy reading his poems.

Seamus Heaney’s poems are beautiful and affecting. They lift me out of the mundane and make the hairs on my arms stand on end!

If you would like to receive a copy of his Specially Selected poems, please emal me.

If you know of anyone who would like to receive my newsletter, please forward their email address to:
mariabez@o2.co.uk.

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