I don't eat breakfast food, and I usually start a pot of soup in the crockpot in the evening. Last night I failed to do so. This lovely dish is the result of my scrounging around in the kitchen this morning looking for something to eat . . .
I started with leftover turmeric rice* and roasted veggies. Roasting veggies concentrates their flavor, you will sometimes come across soup recipes that instruct you to roast the veggies before asembling the soup for just this reason. My leftovers were delicata squash (from last summers garden), whole garlic cloves, and parsnips--but you can use whatever you have on hand. I had roasted them in a glass baking pan, with sunflower oil and some water. Into the water I put 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric, and I sprinkled the veggies with Italian seasoning, natural salt, and fresh ground pepper and baked at 350 partially covered. The parsnips came out a fabulous golden color!
The only other things I added were clams, some water, onion, and dried dulse leaves. You can leave the sea weed out if you don't have it or like it, but it adds flavor, minerals, and color.
I use a brand of chopped clams that contains no chemicals or yeast extract, all my other ingredients are absolutely organic! I mixed the rice, clams, veggies, and 1/2 a chopped onion into a sauce pan and added just enough water to giver it a chowder like consistency. Next I tore about 1/4 cup of dried dulse leaves into small pieces, stirred it all together, and cooked just until the onions were translucent but still flavorfull.
OMG!!! So good.
* For the turmeric rice, I use 3/4 cup long grain brown rice and 1/4 cup wild rice, 3/4 teaspoon turmeric (you might want to start with 1/4 teaspoon or even just a pinch), and a heaping teaspoon of hijiki--which is a sea veggie. You can skip either the hiiki or the wild rice (or both) if you like, and if you want a creamer chowder, use short grain rice instead. Cook as you would for any other batch of rice. This recipe can be doubled or tripled!
If you have any questions or want more details, if you want to share tips or recipes, jump right in on the comments section.
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Turmeric is a fabulous natural anti-inflammatory! I use lots in my food. It is a bit of an acquired taste, however. If you find it tastes odd, just start with a pinch and slowly work your way up.
Clams are very high in natural B-12. B-12 is very good for the nerves, for brain function, and for mood stabilization, among other things. If you are not otherwise opposed to shell fish for any reason, a serving of either clams or oysters once a week is a great source of B-12. They also contains some Omega 3, minerals, and they are fairly low in mercury. However, they are high enough in mercury that you probably don't want to eat them more than once a week. Our bodies are designed to processes a certain amount of mercury without it poisoning us. The trick is to keep our consumption below the threshold of toxicity while still getting all the nutrients we need.
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Hey, I seem to be posting here sort of regularly . . . maybe I will be back again next week!
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