Golden Miso Soup with Noodles
If you’re feeling like cozying up with a soup that warms the belly and heals the body, this is exactly that. It’s rich in herbs, spices, fermented miso and nourishing vegetables, making it truly live up to the idea of food as medicine. It’s a lot to ask for of a soup, but this one supports gut health, detoxification, hormone balance, thyroid health, immune function, the nervous system, and has powerful anti-inflammatory properties.
And I admit, this soup is so lovely that I’ve had it for breakfast several times. It just one of those, “I can’t get enough” kind of recipes. It’s got depth from the spices, and sweet creaminess from the coconut and sweet potato, and who can say no to noodles?
If you’d like to know what makes this soup so very nourishing, hop on down to the nutrition notes at the end. Maybe while the soup simmers and fills your home with all it’s rich sweetness.
INGREDIENTS
Golden Miso Soup with Noodles (Makes ~4 bowls)
3 organic chicken thighs, boneless skinless
1 tbs olive oil (or avocado oil)
1/4 + 1/4 tsp pink himalayan salt
1 sweet onion
2 small sweet potatoes
3 celery sticks
2 tbs red miso paste
1 tbs turmeric powder
1 tsp ginger juice, fresh
1/4 tsp black pepper
13.5oz coconut milk, full fat (guar gum free)
5 cups filtered water
4 oz brown pad Thai rice noodles (1/2 package)
3 cups swiss chard, chopped
Cilantro to serve
Substitutions: Cooked brown rice can be added at the end instead of noodles, if you can’t get your hands on thee noodles. For vegan, sub the chicken for chickpeas.
METHOD
Prepare the chicken by cutting it into bite sized pieces.
Over medium low heat, add the olive oil to a soup pot, along with the chicken and a pinch of salt. Sauté the chicken until lightly browned, approximately 5 minutes.
Meanwhile chop the onions, celery, and sweet potatoes, then add them to the pot.
Add the filtered water, red miso paste, turmeric powder, ginger juice (squeezed from freshly grated ginger), black pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
Bring the soup to a low simmer and cook for 45 minutes.
When the soup is nearing being done, cook the noodles in a separate pot of boiling water according to the package. Drain and set aside.
After the soup has cooked, add the coconut milk and swiss chard, then cook for another 2 minutes.
Serve with the noodles, fresh cilantro, and a dash of cayenne if you like. Store leftovers in a glass Tupperware and transfer the soup to mason jars or similar (a wide mouth funnel makes this so much easier).
This soup freezes well too.
NUTRITION NOTES
Miso is a fermented food, meaning it’s rich in gut friendly probiotics that support the microbiome. Miso is associated with may health benefits including reduced inflammation, healthy digestion, and supporting healthy immune system function. Miso is also supportive of energy and our nervous system due to it’s B vitamin content, including vitamin B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), and B9 (folate). Lastly vitamin K in miso helps promote bone health by helping calcium get into our bones. It’s basically a magical food.
Turmeric – Contains curcumin which is anti-inflammatory and antioxidant rich. It helps health and prevent leaky gut, excess histamine (a common issue with digestive problems), immune cell activation and digestive disturbances. It also supports liver health by promoting detoxification and bile flow. Poor liver function is often linked to digestive issues and hormonal imbalance. Another healing property is its ability to improve insulin resistance, and due to all of my health issues and stress last year I was clinically pre-diabetic. It shocked me initially until I understood the stress / cortisol connection.
Ginger has a long list of healing properties but I’m focusing on digestion here. It helps relieve nausea, cramping, gas and bloating. It’s anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial, both of which support the body as a whole, but especially dysbiosis (imbalance of good and bad bacteria in the gut). Ginger is a prokinetic which means it helps with the motility in the small intestines – slow motility is one of the main issues with SIBO/IBS. Lastly, it helps with absorption of nutrients which is impaired with gut issues.
Coconut oil is a healthy fat that’s a good source of medium chain triglycerides (MCT). It is supportive of gut healing, reducing inflammation and contains Laurie acid which is a strong anti-microbial that fights bad bacteria. Coconut oil also supports cognitive function, balances hormones, boost the immune system, aids in cell function, and promotes healthy skin, hair, bones, liver and cardiovascular health. Note that our cells and brain need fat to function optimally which is 1 of the reasons why we need to love not fear fats. Lastly, coconut is very healing to the thyroid, which is another reason I love it so.
Cilantro is highly detoxifying. When our livers are over burdened with toxins we can have hormonal imbalances because the clearance of hormones from the body decreases, causing a build up. Toxins can also be xenoestrogens (unnatural estrogens) which throw hormones out of balance, for both men and women. The liver is also essential to thyroid health and in the later phase of my recover I focused heavily on detoxification to reverse my hypothyroidism.