Many people love soups, especially soups prepared by our love ones - soups at the dinner table that bring the whole family together for a warm and hearty meal. Soups are comforting.
We are water based organisms. We have and need plenty of water in our bodies. Water is the main component of blood. Water and blood bathes our organs and every cell. Water carries nutrients to all parts of the body, and it also carries waste out of the body. There is plenty of water in a soup, soups can be made in all flavors, and soups can be prepared with all kinds of effects and benefits. Now, if you have the choice of drinking a tasteful soup, would you prefer to drinking plain water or some soft drinks?
Soups are wholesome, because eating a soup is drinking the whole soup. The loss of vitamins or other water soluble components due to cooking: stir fry, grill, or baking, is not a problem for a soup. If you can eat some cooked wholesome food - a soup, would you rather eat raw food for all your meals?
Most soups in my posts are aimed at improving body functions and adjusting the balance of organs so that diseases would be cured at an early stage - at the stage that discomforts and early symptoms are experienced but true disasters have not happened. In most recipes, there are herbs and some of them are just common spices and fruits, such as ginger, pepper, and dates. Herbs and nutrients in the soup together provide the therapeutic effects in a very comforting way. If medicine can be made so unobtrusive, so tasteful and delightful, would you rather choose something uncomfortable - bitter, hard to swallow, or painful?
Oh, soups are good. I wish there are soups in my refrigerator to choose from when I get home after a day's work. Yes. You could have them. These soups in my posts are not difficult to prepare. Most ingredients are common and available. For those less common ingredients, I always point out the sources and provide relevant information. I also post their pictures together with their names in both English and Chinese - I hope these can be used by you in shopping for the ingredients in case you do not speak Chinese. Some of the less experienced readers (in terms of cooking) might worry about the lengthy cooking time in the recipes. Two to three hours or even four to five hours of cooking? You might be wondering why, or how would you have so much time to do it?
I would discuss about why in a later post, but let me give some suggestions as to how to cook for a long time without spending a long time using a slow cooker. A slow cooker is the answer - it is one of the modern cooking utensils that renders cooking soup much easier and simpler. They are available in most department stores and are not expensive at all. A slow cooker has a ceramic interior that is the closest thing to a clay pot used in tradition Chinese soup making or herb cooking. Most important of all, a slow cooker cooks so gently that it does not need venting or attention - yes, you can take a nap or go shopping while a slow cooker is cooking for you. How do you adapt a recipe to using a slow cooker? First, follow the steps in the recipe until when you need to reduce heat and start the hours-long cooking. At this step, transfer the soup components to a slow cooker, set the slow cooker at the highest energy level, and then cook. The length of cooking time you will need using a slow cooker can be roughly estimated this way: if the recipe requires "simmering" or "low heat", you use the same amount of time; if it requires "medium heat", you use 1/4 longer time - that is for every hour, you use 1 hour and 15 minutes.
In this hectic modern society, we need better brains and stronger bodies, and we have better equipment. So, lets modernize our age-old art of soup cooking and enjoy super soups for our bodies and souls.
We are water based organisms. We have and need plenty of water in our bodies. Water is the main component of blood. Water and blood bathes our organs and every cell. Water carries nutrients to all parts of the body, and it also carries waste out of the body. There is plenty of water in a soup, soups can be made in all flavors, and soups can be prepared with all kinds of effects and benefits. Now, if you have the choice of drinking a tasteful soup, would you prefer to drinking plain water or some soft drinks?
Soups are wholesome, because eating a soup is drinking the whole soup. The loss of vitamins or other water soluble components due to cooking: stir fry, grill, or baking, is not a problem for a soup. If you can eat some cooked wholesome food - a soup, would you rather eat raw food for all your meals?
Most soups in my posts are aimed at improving body functions and adjusting the balance of organs so that diseases would be cured at an early stage - at the stage that discomforts and early symptoms are experienced but true disasters have not happened. In most recipes, there are herbs and some of them are just common spices and fruits, such as ginger, pepper, and dates. Herbs and nutrients in the soup together provide the therapeutic effects in a very comforting way. If medicine can be made so unobtrusive, so tasteful and delightful, would you rather choose something uncomfortable - bitter, hard to swallow, or painful?
Oh, soups are good. I wish there are soups in my refrigerator to choose from when I get home after a day's work. Yes. You could have them. These soups in my posts are not difficult to prepare. Most ingredients are common and available. For those less common ingredients, I always point out the sources and provide relevant information. I also post their pictures together with their names in both English and Chinese - I hope these can be used by you in shopping for the ingredients in case you do not speak Chinese. Some of the less experienced readers (in terms of cooking) might worry about the lengthy cooking time in the recipes. Two to three hours or even four to five hours of cooking? You might be wondering why, or how would you have so much time to do it?
I would discuss about why in a later post, but let me give some suggestions as to how to cook for a long time without spending a long time using a slow cooker. A slow cooker is the answer - it is one of the modern cooking utensils that renders cooking soup much easier and simpler. They are available in most department stores and are not expensive at all. A slow cooker has a ceramic interior that is the closest thing to a clay pot used in tradition Chinese soup making or herb cooking. Most important of all, a slow cooker cooks so gently that it does not need venting or attention - yes, you can take a nap or go shopping while a slow cooker is cooking for you. How do you adapt a recipe to using a slow cooker? First, follow the steps in the recipe until when you need to reduce heat and start the hours-long cooking. At this step, transfer the soup components to a slow cooker, set the slow cooker at the highest energy level, and then cook. The length of cooking time you will need using a slow cooker can be roughly estimated this way: if the recipe requires "simmering" or "low heat", you use the same amount of time; if it requires "medium heat", you use 1/4 longer time - that is for every hour, you use 1 hour and 15 minutes.
In this hectic modern society, we need better brains and stronger bodies, and we have better equipment. So, lets modernize our age-old art of soup cooking and enjoy super soups for our bodies and souls.
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