Detox throughout the holidays

Dear readers,

Once again, Christmas and New Year are just around the corner - a surprise as every year . We fly home or our loved ones come to visit us and we spend wonderful days together , eat out or cook at home. Eating together is not only food intake, but it is a social event , time to share and talk, and during the holidays it is normal that we eat more and tend to neglect our usual diet regime as it also does not contribute to comfort if you sit around nibbling on a raw carrot. It 's just part o fit and if we do not completely overdo it , this represents no problem.

Important and useful it is , however, to use the "split times" , that is, if we , for example, at times do not eat between breakfast and dinner also a sprawling lunch. You can use this time to give your body something light and detoxifying to clean the body in between. By doing this in the end it will not bequite as difficult to return to our usual diet mode after the holidays. Of course I always recommend a 12-day Ayurveda Panchakarma cure after these days .

But using this support, we quickly switch our body back into a friendly mode, which benefits our shape, the expulsion of waste from the body and thus our entire well-being. We really do not want to sit down at the table in the evening inwardly groaning "I really do not want anything more to eat", no, we should be able to enjoy these beautiful , rare moments.

I can recommend green tea here as a strong detoxifier , ½ - 1 liter per day. Please also pay attention to quality here . In addition, of course, the green smoothies, to which I have already referred to in a previous article . But there is also another, soothing alternative: detox soups. There are many variations of which I subsequently present only one, but at the end it always comes down to the same thing, just using different methods and veggies. I cook them in stock and freeze smaller portions. There is also the the possibility to strain the soup after cooking and consume only the broth. And my dogs love the boiled vegetables J.

The soup is very tasty through the relatively long cooking time, I personally use absolutely no salt as it absorbs liquid , but a small amount of high quality coarse sea salt (or Himalayan salt as in this recipe) can be added without hesitation if necessary. Vegetables from organic farming are to be recommended , but it should be thoroughly cleaned anyway. The soup can also be cooked without the azuki beans , thereby loses volume and is more easily digestible and less filling . I recommend dried beans, which are first soaked and boiled, canned beans are not necessarily in the sense of detoxification. Instead of azuki beans and mung beans, lentils, kidney beans or pinto beans can be used.

Detoxifying winter soup

( 8 servings )

▪ 1 tbsp olive oil , coconut oil or ghee ( may be omitted , in which case the here

     sauteed vegetables will just be boiled)

▪ 1 large onion, chopped

▪ 1 large leek , sliced ​​into rings

▪ 2 stalk celery , coarsely chopped

▪ 1 beetroot , cut into cubes

▪ 6-8 cloves of garlic , finely chopped

▪ 2 carrots , coarsely chopped

▪ 3 or 4 small turnips, cut into cubes

▪  1 small head of cabbage , cut to strips(about 2 cups quantity)

▪ 3 cups yellow squash , cut into cubes

▪ 8-10 cups of water

▪ Fresh herbs such as rosemary , oregano or whatever is at hand

▪ 3 ripe , red tomatoes with skin and seeds , diced

▪ 2 cups pre-cooked azuki beans

​​▪ 1 head kale , cut to strips

▪ 1-2 tablespoons cider vinegar

▪ Pink Himalayan salt or coarse sea salt , to taste

▪ Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add onion , leek , garlic and celery and sauté for 5 minutes. Add carrots , turnip, cabbage, squash and fresh herbs . Simmer for about 5-7 minutes , stirring frequently.

Add water, tomatoes and beans and bring to a boil on medium heat slightly , then set the temperature on low setting and simmer for about 1.5 hours . The more time you give the soup, the more intense the flavor. If you only want to use the broth , you should cook the soup for at least 2 hours so that all the nutrients can completely merge into the water.

Season with salt and pepper to taste if desired . Shortly before serving add the cider vinegar , stir well , enjoy and detoxify !

MERRY CHRISTMAS!