Food for thoughts #2

Conta-bollita soup (a combination between Ribollita and Contadina soup )

Giulia and I started with the idea of a Ribollita, a thick vegetarian soup from Tuscany dated as far back as medieval times. Ribollita literally means re-boiled — noble family's servants used to reheat the left-over food with the addition of bread. The bread would soak in all the delicious flavours.

But since we thought some of you might not want to eat bread, the recipe would no longer be a genuine ribollita but more of a contadina soup. They are both very similar as they both contain lots of beans but the contadina doesn't have any bread.
So this recipe is sort of like a hybrid between two regional Italian recipes that we renamed Conta-bollita. It is a very comforting dish, perfect for cold wintery days. It would make a great addition to your diet as it is a very healthy one.

It needs a bit of advance preparation as the beans need to soak overnight or for at least 24 hours.

It takes a fair amount of time to make this soup so I recommend doing a large amount and freeze the rest if you wish.

Foods that are full of fibre and contain a wide variety of vegetables can have a fantastic impact on our gut health, and therefore on our mental health. Recent studies have brought to light the synergistic and important connection that exist between gut and brain. Our digestive system and our brain interact both physically and biochemically in a number of different ways.

The vagus nerve, for example, a long nerve which connects the intestine (and other organs) to the brain, sends signals in both directions. Therefore if you are stressed you may not digest very well, and if your stomach did not agree with certain foods, your concentration may not be as good as normal.

Gut and brain also communicate with neurotransmitter, chemical messengers produced mainly in the brain which control feelings and emotions. Our gut, though, also produces certain neurotransmitters like serotonin (which works by making us feel happy), and our gut microflora can produce a neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which helps control feelings of fear and anxiety.
This show us how connected the health of our digestive and nervous system is —no wonder that “adherence to the Mediterranean diet is associated with better mental and physical health”

In order to promote our mind well-being even further, for this recipe we added black beans to the mix of pulse are traditionally use in the recipe since black beans are one of the top foods for folate, and “Folate deficiency and low folate status have been linked in clinic studies to depression, persistent depressive symptoms, and poor antidepressant response.”

When changing the recipe we also made sure the soup was going to have a good amount of leaf vegetables which are packed with calcium, vitamin K and magnesium, essential for energy production, heart and brain health.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4367209/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4393509/
https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/68692
https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2382.short
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-019-01943-4
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-nutrition/article/adherence-to-the-mediterranean-diet-is-associated-with-better-mental-and-physical-health/0C91627A98D6ABB078EFBA47B0573EC8
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/mediterranean-diet-and-depression/67F265CA11470ADC1C9AD2838B7340B7

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Prep Time: 25 minutes + 

10 hrs to soak the beans overnight 

Cook Time: 1h 45 minutes

Serves 6 people

INGREDIENTS

80g dried green lentils

150g dried cannellini beans

150g dried black beans

2 garlic cloves

20ml olive oil 

1 rosemary stick

1.5l water

salt

pepper

olive oil 5 ml

70g onion

2 chillies 

70g carrots 

1 celery stick

120g potatoes

250g savoy cabbage

250g kale

250g swiss cabbage

200g tinned plum tomatoes

black pepper

1-2 tsp salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1 Start by soaking the beans overnight. If you don't have time or you want to speed up the procedure you can just buy precooked canned beans.

2 To prepare our conta-bollita you must cook the beans first as they take a fair amount of time. In a large deep pan heat up the olive oil with the rosemary and garlic for about 2 minutes. Drain the beans and pour them in. Cover with 1.5l of boiling water and cook for about 1 hour. Season with salt and pepper.

3 Take out the rosemary stick. Then blend in half of the beans in a mixer and pour it back into the pot. 

4 Now prep your veggies. 

5 Peel the onion and chop it finely. 

6 Remove the strings from the celery sticks and chop them finely. 

7 Peel the carrots and cut them into small cubes of about 1/3 inch. 

8 Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes of about 1 inch.

9 Chop the chillies finely, taking care to remove the seeds if you don't want the soup to be too spicy. 

10 In a small pot heat up the olive oil and cook the onion, celery, carrots and chilli for about 5 minutes. 

11 Wash the savoy cabbage, kale and Swiss cabbage. Then remove the middle stems from the hardest leaves, and roughly chop them into large pieces of about 2”

12 Now add in the potatoes followed by the tomato sauce and cook for about 10 minutes. 

13 Pour in all the content into the larger pot with the bean soup previously made . 

14 Add the lentils, cabbage, Swiss chard and kale leaves. Bring the soup to the boil and simmer with the lid on for about 30 minutes. 

15 Season with salt and pepper.

16 Taste and serve with bread if you wish. 

I like to eat mine like the original ribollita with a lot of bread soaking all the delicious soup.  

Enjoy!"

Immune boosting

#5 Creamy broccoli soup

When I was a kid I absolutely hated broths or soups of any kind so much that I used to have nightmares about it. It was a thing that I always associated with being ill. It is not until I become an adult that I started to appreciate the health benefits and enjoy the nourishing side of soups.

Chicken broth has been considered a remedy for cold and viral symptoms for centuries, that’s why Giulia and I decided to create a soup that would contain this delicious ingredient.

When we get a cold, our body reacts to the virus by creating an inflammatory response. Chicken soup may have an anti-inflammatory action on our immune system which stops our white blood cells from migrating in the affected area. Another great bonus about eating soup when you are ill is that they help keep your body hydrated.

We chose broccoli as the main vegetable for this soup as it is high in vitamin C and antioxidant compounds such as lutein, zeaxanthin and carotenoids. Broccoli are also rich in vitamin K and vitamin A which are known to improve vitamin D metabolism. As we mentioned in the previous posts, vitamin D is an essential nutrient for our immune system health.

Creamy broccoli soup

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Total Time: 40 min

Servings: 2

INGREDIENTS

CHICKEN STOCK

2 garlic cloves

3-4 chicken wings

1 carrots

2 celeries stalks

1 onion (100g)

bayleaves

2 tsp peppercorn

1 tsp salt

BROCCOLI SOUP

200g broccoli

200g potatoes 

2 garlic cloves 

1/2 onion (70g)

2 celery stalks

butter 10g

600ml chicken stock

a handful of rosemary

salt

pepper

GARNISH

thyme 

extra virgin olive oil

black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

To make the chicken stock, chop the carrots, celery and onions in big chunks. In a big pot place all the ingredients and cover with water.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 3-4 hours.

To make the creamy broccoli soup, finely chop the onion and crush the garlic cloves first. Then chop the celery into small cubes. Heat up the butter in a deep pot and fry the onions, celery, garlic and rosemary for 2 minutes.

Slice the potatoes and cut them into small cubes. Chop the broccoli of approximately the same size as the potatoes as well.  Add it to the pan and cook for 1-2 minutes. 

Filter the chicken stock through a fine sieve and place it a separate pot. Strip some of the chicken from the chicken bones. You will add this to your broccoli soup later on. Bring the chicken stock to a boil.

Pour the chicken stock into the broccoli’s pot and cook it for approximately 25 minutes at medium heat. 

Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

Save some of the broccoli in a small plate to use as a garnish later on. Blitz all the remaining content and bring the pot back to the stove to reduce further more.

Portion the soup into two small bowls. Add in some thyme, a drizzle of olive oil and pepper if you wish.

The soup is also great cooked served with croutons.  

Buon appetito!