Soup of the Day: Root Veggies and Ginger

I love nice warming ginger foods on cold nights, don’t you?

That ginger is also good for nausea and digestion is a bonus. My family puts a lot of stock in augmenting treatments for our health issues with foods and herbs, so I’ve been eating ginger to help manage my digestive issues for a long time. While crystallized ginger, candied ginger, and ginger snaps are always wonderful, a soup is a lot more appealing when desserts or snacks are less of a priority.

The soup I’ve put together for you is gluten-free, dairy-free, and meat-free, making it parve, vegan, and GFCF friendly. You are free to adjust it, of course, by adding pre-cooked meat or replacing things, but my meat-loving brother had a hard time believing it didn’t have any animal in it. You might want to serve alongside a protein source, though, if you need a high protein diet.

Ingredients & Tools

• A large crock pot/slow cooker
• 1/8 & 1/4 cup measures
• 1 teaspoon measure
• Cutting surface
• Knife that will cut root veggies
• A large spoon or ladle
• 1/8 cup powdered ginger
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/8 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• 1-2 teaspoons course or kosher salt
• a dash ground cloves
• Water enough to nearly fill a large crock pot
• 3 medium to large potatoes, rinsed and in 1/2-1 inch chunks
• 2 sweet potatoes, rinsed and  in 1/2-1 inch chunks
• 2 cups carrots, rinsed and sliced into coins
• 1/2 onion, in large slivers

Instructions

1. Fill a large crock pot 2/3rds the way full with water. Set the temperature setting, if available, to high.
2. Stir in the powdered ginger, dark brown sugar, black pepper, salt, and cloves. Let the coconut oil dissolve on its own in this solution, stirring occasionally — coconut oil melts easily, so this won’t take terribly long.
3. Once the water is quite warm and all of the above ingredients thoroughly incorporated, add in the potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots. You can add more water at this point so that they are mostly covered if needed. Note: Peeling the potatoes is optional, just make sure they are well cleaned. The skins have plenty of nutrients so I leave them on myself. Additionally, the larger you chunk the potatoes the longer they will take to cook, but you also don’t want to sliver them for this particular recipe.
4. Cover and let cook for 2-3 hours, or until the sweet potatoes and potatoes are soft enough to eat but not at all mushy.
5. Add the onion, and let cook for another 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how long it takes for the onion to soften.
6. Serve!

You can serve alongside a protein source of your choice, or eat it alone. It’s a very warming soup that is solid from the root veggies while not being overly heavy due to the broth.  If you like cooking with meat or animal products I’d lean towards a mild fat to replace the coconut oil, such as chicken. If you use venison instead, I’d increase the ginger and cloves a little to balance out the taste as venison can be strong tasting. You can, of course, add other root type veggies to this, but I’d steer away from anything that breaks down too easy but takes longer than the onions to cook.