Cozy, Comforting and Veggie-Rich, You’ll Want to Enjoy This Soup All Winter Long
Move aside, salad! A bowl of this colorful, ingredient-packed soup gives you a whole new way to enjoy leafy greens.
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Is there anything leafy greens can’t do for you? These extra-healthy veggies offer up potent natural compounds that are great for your health from head to toe. And if you’re hoping to keep your liver as healthy as possible, there’s no better way to achieve this than with plenty of leafy greens.
While most people immediately think of salads when they’re thinking of veggie-rich dishes, we’ve got a different idea. A steamy, warming bowl of creamy soup that’s as filling as it is cozy in chilly weather. That’s right: You can get plenty of vegetables from soup,
Serve this soup to love your liver!
The base of our Piled-High Roasted Garlic & Greens Soup? It’s spinach, one of the best dark leafy greens you can consume. And when it comes to a healthy liver, veggies like spinach have fantastic potential. A diet that’s rich in vegetables can help you fight back against fatty liver disease. Many veggies have indole, which can reduce fat deposits in the liver and slow fat accumulation in the liver overall. A healthy serving of spinach – like you’ll find in this soup – can also decrease liver inflammation, a factor that can help you prevent liver damage over time.
But it’s not only the spinach in this soup that delivers an incredible health boost for your liver. All of the other ingredients were chosen to round out your liver health and keep all of its most important functions humming along. While the leafy spinach helps rid the liver of fat deposits, the root vegetables, such as the parsnips and celery added into this soup, contain betaine, a natural compound with protective properties for liver cells and bile ducts. Vegetables in the allium family, including flavorful onions and garlic, are high in inflammation-lowering antioxidants as well as a sulfur compound that supports liver detoxification.
Plus, you can customize your bowl of soup to your liking. For more protein, pile on some rotisserie chicken and hard-boiled eggs. Add even more veggies with radish slices, parsnip chips and celery leaves. And mix in a little crunch with a sprinkle of crispy pancetta. You can change it up and tweak your toppings every time you make this soup to keep it exciting and extra liver-friendly.
Piled-High Roasted Garlic & Greens Soup
Ingredients
- 1 head garlic
- 2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- 6 oz parsnips, chopped (about 2 cups)
- 1⁄2 tsp sea salt + additional to taste
- 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 5-oz container baby spinach, tough stems removed
- 1⁄2 cup fresh parsley leaves
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- Pinch ground cayenne pepper
- 1⁄4 tsp ground black pepper
- 8 oz shredded rotisserie chicken, optional
- Optional garnishes: Hard-boiled eggs, cooked pancetta, celery leaves, radishes, parsnip chips or chile oil
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Remove most of loose papery skin from garlic head. Slice about 1⁄4 inch off top, enough to expose flesh of cloves. Drizzle top with one-half of oil. Wrap garlic in foil, place on an oven rack in center of oven and bake until very fragrant and cloves are very tender and turning golden, 40 to 45 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a large saucepan on medium, heat remaining half of oil. Add onion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are very tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Add parsnips, season vegetables with salt and cook, stirring, until beginning to soften, 3 to 4 minutes longer. Pour in broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until parsnips are very tender, about 20 minutes.
- Add spinach to saucepan, stirring in a handful at a time. Stir in parsley. Simmer until greens have wilted, about 5 minutes, stirring once or twice. Stir in lemon juice and cayenne. Transfer to an upright blender. Squeeze roasted garlic flesh from head into blender. Blend until smooth. (Remove the center piece of the lid and cover with a clean kitchen towel while blending to let steam escape.) Season with additional salt, to taste, and pepper.
- Ladle soup into bowls. Pile rotisserie chicken over top (if using) along with other desired toppings.
Nutrition Information
- Serving Size 1⁄4 of recipe
- Calories 114
- Carbohydrate Content 16 g
- Cholesterol Content 0 mg
- Fat Content 4 g
- Fiber Content 4 g
- Protein Content 6 g
- Saturated Fat Content 1 g
- Sodium Content 348 mg
- Sugar Content 4 g
- Monounsaturated Fat Content 2 g
- Polyunsaturated Fat Content 0.5 g