Jason Makes Healthy Soup A Summer Delight

I had to mow the yard this week, so no matter what the calendar says, spring is over and summer is officially here. It lasted all of about one day.

I have a bad habit of only making certain foods during each season, and I’m not sure why when I apply some logic to it. It’s not like we live back in a time when certain foods were only available in certain months. With global supply chains and mega-marts on every corner, it’s always 5 o’clock somewhere, seasonally speaking.

I could make baked fish, cole slaw, and cauliflower potato salad in the winter, and chili and soups in the summer, but I never do. It’s not like we don’t have central air and heat…no matter what the temperature is outside, it stays pretty constant inside where most of the cooking and eating takes place.

So never being one that lets social trends dictate what I do, I’m bringing soups back for the summertime.

Every season needs comfort food, damn it. And when you make homemade soups, you can cram it full of highly nutritious ingredients to fuel the extra summertime activities without adding a spare tire to the swimsuit situation.

Summer is not a time to get sick, and soups can fortify your immune system with everything it needs to be the Rocky to a virus Drago. There are some sayings that are hard truths in life. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. If you truly love someone, never come home early. You are what you eat.

That one really used to hack me off as a kid, as I only heard it when I was stuffing cheesy poofs and twinkies into my mouth. That’s the thing about truth. Sure, it will set you free…but it will most likely piss you off first.

I have another one to add. The foods you eat now will determine the medication you need later. If I had kept up my eating habits in my teens and early adulthood, I would likely be on a host of different medications right now. Blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes…it would all be on the table. I was headed for trouble with all of the above, and who knows what else.

I’ve seen some fitness influencers push back on the idea that food is medicine. Maybe it isn’t, in the technical sense, but it sure as hell can keep you from having to be on medicine. I make a chicken broccoli soup that makes statin meds run to their daddy.

It’s simple to make, and loaded with protein, healthy fats, fiber, and vitamins. Why not make it during the summer? People eat chicken and broccoli all year long, just not in soup form. For any of you that don’t like broccoli, just try it before making up your mind. This is delicious, and remember, this is coming from the cheesy poof and twinkies kid.

I’m not someone that would ever eat raw broccoli, cauliflower, or baby carrots…if you see those trays at a party with ranch dressing in the middle, that’s a hard pass for me. I say that to let you know I’m not coming at you from the position of a person that just loves every form of vegetable. It still amazes me how much I eat and enjoy now that I understand some basic cooking processes and have allowed my taste buds to recover from the completely insane processed foods taste profiles.

If you are hung up on the idea of soup in the summer, just turn down the a/c before you go to bed and hyper cool the house for the next day, then you will be all set.

Chicken Broccoli Soup

Ingredients:

1 32 ounce carton of low sodium chicken stock

4 chicken breasts slow cooked and shredded

2-3 fresh broccoli with stalks

1 cup grass fed half and half

2 ounces grass fed cream cheese

1 yellow onion diced

1 packages shiitake mushrooms sliced

1/2 tsp Sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, thyme, and oregano, plus more to taste

3/4 cup Parmesan cheese shredded

Instructions:

Early in the morning, season your chicken breasts with sea salt and pepper, and set in a slow cooker for at least 6 hours. Shred after cook time is complete:

Chop the broccoli florets off the stalk and rinse off. Peel the rough outer layer off the stalks, then use a mandolin slicer (and a kevlar glove if you love having fingers) to make thin disk slices of the stalk:

Toss the disks in a large bowl with a tablespoon of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Bake on a tray lined with parchment for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, stir and turn, and bake 10 more minutes:

Drop the broccoli florets in a large soup pot with the chicken stock and set the spurs to it, bringing to a boil. Saute the onion and mushrooms in a skillet. Once they are soft, melt the cream cheese in the same pan. Once the florets are tender, hit them with a blend stick until smooth:

Add the mushrooms/onions, shredded chicken and broccoli “chips” to the soup, stir to combine. Turn the heat to low, then add the half and half and parm cheese, heating until melted: