Prebiotic Soup Recipe

by admin-emu | posted in: Recipes, Thermomix | 0

You may have heard of the benefits of probiotics. But what about prebiotics? Both are important for a robust and healthy gut microbiome.

What is the difference between probiotics and prebiotics?

Probiotics are the beneficial bacteria in, for example, the fermented foods and drinks we make in our Healing the Gut and Fermenting Vegetables workshops. They assist in restoring and maintaining better gut health.

Our gut bacteria plays many important and beneficial roles in our body including helping us make Vitamin B and K, strengthening our immune system, helping with hormone production, sending signals to the nervous system and brain, and helping extract energy and absorb nutrients from the food we eat.

Probiotics are especially useful to take during and after antibiotics. Antibiotics, while can be life saving, are unfortunately overprescribed and kill off many of our good bugs as well as the bad bugs they are targeting. (An important note: if you choose to take probiotics during while on antibiotics...take the probiotics at the furthest time away from each dose of your antibiotics. It will be important to be extra mindful of your gut health and work on rebuilding it once you stop your antibiotics). Antibiotics are also in our food supply, unless we choose organic.

Prebiotics are the food for the probiotics. Think of it like the fertiliser to help your beneficial microbes flourish and repopulate. We need to be feeding more of the beneficial bacteria to help our gut rebalance and crowd out overgrowths of less desirable strains that may be contributing to our sugar cravings, symptoms and poor state of physical and mental health. It is important to eat a variety of seasonal vegetables, which will help provide the prebiotic plant fibre to fibre nourish your gut bugs.

Some of the best prebiotic vegetables are:

Garlic
Onion
Leek
Dandelion Greens
Jerusalem Artichoke
Asparagus

If you don’t have the time or inclination to make your own fermented foods...Changing Habits Organic Probiotic Powder is a fermented food powder which contains both probiotics and prebiotics. Probiotics and prebiotics are also found in the new Peak Performance Blend.

This prebiotic soup recipe developed after picking up a bag of Jerusalem artichokes from my local farmers market.

What is a Jerusalem Artichoke?

Firstly, they have nothing to do with Jerusalem or artichokes, in fact they are related to the sunflower and daisy and are native to central America. They are a knobbly looking root vegetable with a slight nutty flavour.

Jerusalem Artichokes are an excellent source of prebiotic fibre. They are also a good source of minerals especially iron and potassium.

Here I have made the Jerusalem artichokes into a soup. They can also be enjoyed baked, made into a 'mash potato' substitute or fried as chips. So grab a bag next time you see them.

If you don't have any Jerusalem Artichokes, you can use any type of potatoe as a substitute for this recipe.

Jerusalem artichoke, leek and bacon soup

Makes 4 serves

Prebiotic Soup Ingredients:

1 leek (white part), sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 rashes of bacon, diced
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
400g Jerusalem Artichokes
600ml homemade bone broth
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Salt and pepper

Prebiotic Soup Method:

Step 1: Prepare your ingredients. Use a peeler to take off any parts of the jerusalem artichokes that are extra brown. Then roughly cut them into small cubes.

Step 2: On medium-high heat, add the oil to a pan and cook the leek, garlic and bacon. Keep moving them around in the pan until they start to develop some yummy caramelisation.

Step 3: Add the Jerusalem Artichokes to the pan and stir through.

Step 4: Add the bone broth and bring to the boil. Then turn down the heat to medium-low, put a lid on the pan and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the Jerusalem Artichokes are soft.

Step 5: Add the nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.

Step 6: Remove from the heat and blend in a processor, Thermomix (or use a stick blender) until smooth. Alternatively, if you like a chunky style soup, no need to blend just serve and enjoy.