Cold-Busting Vegan Ginger Garlic Soup

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! The holidays are approaching, which means lots of giving thanks, social gatherings, and FOOD! Unfortunately, for many of us, it also means the onset of sniffling, stuffy, sore-throated cold misery.

Nothing gets in the way of shoving holiday cookies down my throat like a nasty, persistent cold. And this simply will not do.

For those of us that stay away from meat, it can be difficult to find an alternative to the age-old chicken noodle soup “cure.”

Until… now!

This Cold-Busting Vegan Ginger Garlic Soup capitalizes on some of the most powerful healing foods known to humankind. In addition to being chock-full of nutrient-dense vegetables, there are a few key players here that really amp up the cold-fighting properties of this soup.

First – garlic! Garlic has proven antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-fungal effects. It can also help kick your immune system into high gear. Not only has garlic been shown to reduce the length of colds, it can also help prevent you from getting sick in the first place. Onion includes similar properties and even has some vitamin C.

Next up – ginger! Ginger helps reduce nausea, if you have any, but also has a slew of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits. Plus, it’s sweet and spicy and pairs perfectly with the garlic.

The cayenne adds a kick and can break up mucus and clear out your sinuses. As such, I highly recommend you keep a box of tissues close by as you enjoy this soup.

Finally, holding a steaming cup of delicious, fragrant broth (and breathing in that steam) just does something good for the soul.

What Makes Cold-Busting Vegan Ginger Garlic Soup Revolutionary

Now, this wouldn’t be Revolutionary Chef if we didn’t talk about the why you can feel good about the ingredients in Cold-Busting Vegan Ginger Garlic Soup. The first thing you should feel good about is that this is, of course, vegan. No animals were harmed in the making of this soup.

Second, you can find most of these ingredients in your store (or, better yet, your local farmer’s market) without packaging. Please (please!) don’t put your vegetables in the plastic bags that grocery stores give you! These are what we call single-use plastics, meaning you use them once and throw them out. Single-use plastics are some of the first items you should eliminate in your revolutionary home.

For the produce in this recipe, you can just put them directly into the reusable shopping bags used to carry your groceries home. If you’re afraid this makes you look like a shop-lifter, you can put them directly into the grocery basket or cart (we’re going to wash and cook everything anyway). If you don’t want your food touching the basket, you can purchase smaller, reusable produce bags (I like these). Just tuck these into your bigger grocery bags before heading to the market.

Next, I recommend sourcing Fair Trade seasonings for the dried spices. Read more about why in my Guide to Foods to Buy Fair Trade.

Finally, all of the ingredients listed here are harvested and available in the fall season for many parts of North America (see https://www.seasonalfoodguide.org/ for more information). I find it pretty amazing how as cold season descends on us, nature just so happens to provide us with all the necessary ingredients for a cure.

Enjoy and feel better soon!