Summer Soup Recipe and a Poem!

If you are having difficulty relaxing or maintaining equanimity due to the summer’s heat or the events in the world or in your personal life, this poem is for you.  And the recipe below is also good for cooling.    Debbie

 

Release

by Danna Faulds

 

I lay myself down

on the welcoming

ground, the earth’s

spine becoming mine.

Peace seeps into

heavy limbs and

slows my heartbeat

to the pace of

nature. I take refuge

in the quiet, and let

my burdens go,

one by one, until

the earth and I

both float in the

same vast and

holy silence.

 

GARDEN PEA AND ZUCCHINI SOUP

(Adapted from Eat, Taste, Heal  by Yarema, Rhoda, and Brannigan)

Ingredients

4 to 5 cups vegetable stock or 5 cups water and 1 cube of vegetable bouillon

1 T (tablespoon) of chickpea flour, may substitute whole wheat flour

2-4 small to medium zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and sliced

1 ½ to 2 cups fresh peas, either shelled or use sugar snap or snow peas (may substitute organic frozen peas)

4 T fresh chopped mint

2 T full fat yogurt or cream

½ to 3/4  t salt

1 T ghee

Chopped cilantro for garnish

Put 1/4 stock in a small mixing bowl.  Add the chickpea flour, and whisk until smooth.  Set aside.

Put ghee in a big saucepan.  Add zucchini and sautee over medium heat for 1 or 2 minutes.  Then add the remaining stock to total 4 cups, peas, and mint.  Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat.  Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, partially covered.  Whisk in the chick pea flour-stock mixture.  Add more water if needed. Simmer for 5 minutes more.

Using an immersion blender (or regular blender), add the yogurt or cream and the salt and blend, leaving a few chunks.

Reheat and serve immediately, adding a little cilantro to each bowl.

Serves 4.