Adzuki & Lemon Soup ~ a winter cold remedy

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a plant-based winter soup using Meyer lemon’s off my tree, finally ripe!

Who doesn’t know someone who gets a cold in the winter? Normally I would point everyone to my version of a chicken soup recipe, quick, easy, but not vegan. So, this is a plant-based alternative to that recipe. The key to a healing soup is the broth, it must be mineral-rich! Yes, the lemon rinds are edible.

Ingredients

dry beans

soaking with a pinch of baking soda and ACV

soaking covered on a radiator

soaked beans are plump

• 1/2 C dry adzuki beans (pinch of baking soda and a squirt of apple cider vinegar (ACV) to neutralize the beans and make them more bio-available)

• 1 very juicy lemon (I used a Meyer lemon). Use more lemons if that one is not juicy

• Spring water to soak and cook with

• 1” strip of Kombu seaweed

• 3-4 fat cloves of garlic, crushed and minced, set aside before you use for at least 10 minutesa few leaves of kefir lime (or bay leaf will do)

• 2-3 small carrots, minced in any size you like

• Mushrooms - optional

• 1 medium yellow onion

• 1 tsp Cumin

• Celtic sea salt - or some other mineral-rich, non-washed salt

Prep time ~ 24 hrs to soak the adzuki beans; 1/5 hrs to prep and cook on the stove top

beans in the pot with 3" of water covering them

scum forming as the beans heat up the first time

skimming scum off the first boil

onions and kefir lime leaves ~ yum

Meyer lemon's are the juiciest

all ingredients in the final low boil

For fun, I served small bowls of soup in a lemon rind

note the chunks of garlic!

1. Place the soaked adzuki beans in a bowl with 2” plus at least of water covering them, add the pinch of baking soda and a squirt of ACV, let soak in a warm shaded spot for at least 24 hours. Feel free to change the water at least once. It is key that they are not soaking too cold. If you don’t have a warm place, use warm water to soak them in.

2. Rinse your beans, place in a pot, add fresh spring water, about 3” to spare with the strip of Kombu and bring to a boil. If any foam forms on the top as soon as it boils, this is scum, so skim it off and discard.

3. Turn the heat down to a light boil and start the rest of your ingredients. The beans could take up to 1.5 hrs to cook.

   1. mash and mince the garlic, set aside (at least 10 minutes)

   2. chop the onions, set aside

   3. chop the carrots, set aside

   4. chop the mushrooms, set aside (optional)

   5. cut the lemon in half, squeeze the half into a bowl, and slice into slivers the squeezed half. Set the other half aside for now.

4. Add the onions and slivered lemon peal after the beans have cooked about 1/2 hrs. After an hour, add the remaining ingredients. Make sure you are keeping a low boil all the while. At the final 10 minutes, add the salt, the cumin, the herbs (squeezed lemon juice, kefir or bay or other herbs you choose from your kitchen garden and the garlic)

5. Bring to a boil one last time and then you are ready to serve. Take the last lemon half and squeeze it into each bowl as you serve it. If you saved any slivers of lemon, or make some lemon zest and sprinkle it on top. This also serves up nicely with parsley or cilantro.

Enjoy, be well!