Oven Roasted Tomato Soup

I am still chasing the colours and flavours of summer even as temperatures drop and snow begins to fall across Canada and not just on top of the mountains.

This recipe is fibre rich and fibre is a midlife womans best friend.

One of the best ways we can get self-responsible and make changes to our food and nutrition to reduce our symptoms of menopause is by adding more fibre to our plate every day; or in this case our bowl!

During peri-menopause, the (up to) 10 year season of hormonal fluctuations before menopause, we experience all of our hormones in spikes and crashes. Take a look at the graph below showing a 6 month snapshot of the hormones that manage our menstrual cycle and compare a regular cycle to perimenopause. YIKES!

During perimenopause, we will experience higher levels of progesterone in our bodies than we did in pregnancy; and progesterone is the hormone that supports the viability of our pregnancies! We will be flooded with higher levels of estrogen than we ever experienced within our menstrual cycle and not shown on this graph but threatening to amplify our symptoms of hormonal change is cortisol our stress hormone.

Cortisol is a hormone stealer! Due to adaptations for survival, your body will build cortisol, your fight, flight, freeze or fawn hormone, before it builds your ‘juicy’ hormones of estrogen and progesterone.

If you are experiencing weight gain around the middle, aching shoulders, sugar cravings, waking at 3am and feelings of overwhelm, it is likely that cortisol is dominating this crazy hormonal dance that is peri-menopause.

Excess hormone is removed from the body by one means only…poop, or what I like to call our ‘daily detox’.

To simplify a complex process: Hormones are built by the body each with a cholesterol tail. Fibre in your diet hooks onto that tail and carries excess estrogen out of the body.

The more fibre you can include in your diet at midlife, the more you will have opened up the pathway for detoxifying excess hormone from the body and the more you can reduce your uncomfortable symptoms.

To the recipe!

I pulled fibre rich vegetables, sun-shiny flavour and colour out of my refrigerator, tossed them in extra virgin olive oil and roasted them together on a baking tray.

Once softened, I blended this roasted beauty with mineral and protein rich bone broth to make a soup.

Bone broth helps to build strong bones and joints at midlife and supports the health of the lining of the digestive tract.

If you are a woman who is experiencing gassiness and bloat at midlife, who used to be able to eat dairy and good bread but now experience diarrhoea when you accidentally eat those foods, your digestion needs support and bone broth is perfect.

Packed with easily absorbed amino acids and collagen, bone broth helps to rebuild the gut lining - bonus! You will notice improvements to your skin, hair and nails too.

This soup has a decadent creamy texture without using dairy, courtesy of egg yolks whisked with Balsamic vinegar.

If you are looking to add more nutrition to a dish, egg yolks would be perfect. They are rich in vitamin D, iron and folate. Egg yolks are packed with choline ,which is used by the body to make acetylcholine and supports brain health. Egg yolks contain lutein and zeaxanthin which directly support the health of our eyes and our vision as we age.

If we make it our goal to ditch diet industry thinking and instead deeply nourish our bodies through perimenopause, the creamy texture created by the egg yolks and vinegar are a must for this recipe.

As my oven was on and I had old bread in the house, I tossed cubes of bread in Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Mediterranean herbs to make croutons.

Pro tip: I use baking parchment to line my aluminum baking trays as i want to reduce my toxic load at midlife and keep aluminium out of my diet… Especially acid foods like tomatoes.

Ingredients

1 punnet cherry tomatoes (250g)
2 medium sized tomatoes quartered
1 medium carrot chopped into small chunks
1 small red pepper seeded and chopped into eigths
2-3 large garlic cloves chopped
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 pint chicken bone broth
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon red wine or Balsamic vinegar
Salt, freshly ground pepper and fresh basil to taste.

For the croutons:
Stale read cut into cubes
Extra Virgin Olive Oil to coat
1 Tbsp of dried Italian or Mediterranean herbs

Instructions

Toss the cherry tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, red pepper, carrot and garlic and place in a bowl to toss with olive oil.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and scatter the oiled up vegetables onto the paper.
Bake in the over for 30 - 40 mins at 375F or until soft and roasted.
If you are making croutons, cut the bread into cubes and toss in the same bowl in olive oil with the dried herbs.
Put the croutons on a separate lined tray and bake until toasted.
Whilst the tomatoes, vegetables and croutons are roasting, place the egg yolks and vinegar into a small bowl and whisk together to make a cream before placing on one side.
Put the roasted vegetables into a blender and add the chicken bone broth.
Blend until smooth and pour the soup into a saucepan.
Place the soup on a low heat and warm through. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Once the soup is warmed through to a simmer, add the egg yolk and vinegar cream and whisk vigorously to form a creamy soup.
Tear up the leaves of fresh basil and add to the soup.
Serve in a warm bowl with the croutons.

If this creamy Roasted Tomato Soup is your idea of comfort food, you might also want to try my Macaroni and Cheese recipe which also adds fibre to foods we know and love!

Eggs in Purgatory

One of the important ways we can support our brains to be free of overwhelm and anxiety, even in challenging times is by eating the dense nutrition our brains and nervous system need to thrive.
Nutrition and healthy food is the first line of self-care for midlife women.
All of our neurotransmitters use the building blocks of amino acids in their formation, so a diet rich in protein supports our best mental health and helps to prevent anxiety and depression.
Eggs are a wonderful and cost effect way of bringing protein into your diet. Always buy the best quality you can afford. When cooked gently to reveal a soft yolk, they remain rich in the nutrient choline. Choline is then used to build the neurotransmitter acetylcholine which help with our thinking skills or cognitive function. Choline is also hugely supportive of liver health if you have symptoms of fatty liver disease from excess alcohol or sugar in the diet or are experiencing severe peri-menopausal symptoms.

The hellish purgatory that will cook these eggs is a highly flavoured and spicy tomato sauce. Chopped olives, garlic, anchovy, parsley and capers give this dish a fabulous flavour boost that also provides dense nutrition for your brain.
Capers are a high source of quercetin which helps to bring down inflammation across the body. This is important as new research is showing us that there is a link between depression and inflammation from alcohol or excess sugar in the brain.
Olive oil and olives alongside anchovy provide mono saturated fats and omega 3 fatty acids respectively. Both help to fight inflammation and research gives us plenty of evidence that omega 3 fatty acids help to reduce the symptoms of depression.
Parsley adds vitamin C, a well known anti-oxidant to this dish and the tomatoes contain lycopene another well researched anti-oxidant. The volatile oils found in the herb oregano have been shown to both modulate our mood and memory. Oregano oil actually slows the re-uptake of happy and motivational neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine. Isn’t there a medication for that? With food and a healthy diet there are no side effects on the packet.

Served for breakfast, lunch or dinner this is an easy to prepare, family-friendly dish that delivers a powerful nutritional punch for brain health. Eggs in purgatory tastes delicious served on a good sourdough toast or with a side of winter slaw.

Ingredients

1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1-2 cloves fresh garlic
1 big handful fresh parsley
1/4 cup pitted black olives
1 tbsp capers
1-2 (or go with your heart) anchovies
1 tsp dried oregano
1/8th tsp dried chilli flakes
1 14oz can chopped tomatoes
1 - 4 eggs
1/4 cup parmesan or pecorino cheese
Toast

Instructions

On a clean chopping board place your garlic clove, parsley, black olives, capers and anchovies (I used half of a small can of anchovies)
This is where you get to vent your frustration by chopping all of the ingredients together small enough that it begins to form a paste on the board. Go crazy and think of everything that is stealing your equilibrium as you wield the knife!
Heat the olive oil in a pan and scrap the chopped ingredients into the heated oil to give them a sizzle.
Add the oregano and chilli flakes to taste.
Once the garlic is softened add the can of chopped tomatoes and simmer on a low heat for two minutes.
Form one to four dimples in your tomato sauce and break a fresh egg into each dimple.
Keep simmering the sauce and place a lid over the pan.
Cook until the eggs are just solid with some jamminess to the yolks.
This recipe needs no further salt due to the anchovy but pepper would add a further kick.

Summer Squash Soup

Hands up!

Anyone else find themselves with a glut of zucchini and summer squash as the plants are just loving the heat this summer?

I cannot resist the beauty of a shiny summer squash or zucchini whenever i see them in the store or t the City Farm and found myself with over 2lbs in my refrigerator.

I needed a recipe fast.

I adapted this recipe from online vegan recipe creator, Debra Klein, to create a protein rich, nutrient dense soup, creamy but dairy-free and packed with flavour. The soup is no longer vegan but conatins all that gut-healing bone broth collagen and mineral dense goodness that we need to support our bodies through hormonal change.

Did you know that there is no word for hot flashes in Japan?

So few women experience this symptom of peri-menopause as they pass through hormonal change so there is not a descriptor in the language. This is changing as wheat heavy foods become more popular in Japan and the Standard American diet and subsequent fast foods are enjoyed by the culture, but, a traditional Japanese diet heavy in fish, fermented foods and soy support a woman through a symptom free peri-menopause.

Let’s talk about the phyto-chemicals in soy beans that mimic estrogen in he body and help to reduce symptoms of peri-menopause.

They have had a bad rap and there has been scaremongering that these foods can create a risk of breast cancer.

When we drip feed our bodies gentle plant based chemicals that mimic estrogen in the body we are supporting our vaginal health, brain health and libido. These gentle estrogens attach to beta estrogen receptors in the breast that slow down the turnover of cells, making them breast protective.

Make sure that you buy organic soy products as this crop is heavily sprayed with glyphosate, it was genetically designed that way and glyphosate is extremely damaging to our gut lining…it was designed that way, it is how it kills pests.

The big benefit of using soy in this soup is that it creates a creamy texture without needing to add inflammatory dairy products such as milk and cream. Don’t get me wrong, I love the occasional creamy dessert or scone with cream and jam and I LOVE butter but in my everyday cooking I shy away from dairy heavy recipes.

So, we have a high protein, plant heavy soup with a creamy texture, that helps to prevent menopausal symptoms and is rich in all the mineral dense nutrition and gut healing properties for bone broth.

How does the soup taste Louise? Am I going to love it?

Creamy and herby in flavour, this soup has a deep umami taste due to the 2 tbsp of miso paste added at the end. Miso paste is found in the refrigerator in your food store or an Asian grocery and is made from fermented soy beans. Because it is fermented the nutrition from protein, iron, magnesium our relaxation mineral and the B group of vitamins that support our nervous system and boost our energy are easily absorbed.

Above all else Miso Paste benefits for your microbiome, you inner constellation of healthy bacteria that impact so many areas of our health from mood to yes you guessed it, menopausal symptoms in a positive way. The Miso Paste is added at the very end of the recipe once the soup has been taken off the heat and in this way the healthy bacteria in the Miso can stay ‘live’.

What a gorgeous way to include this stunning summer vegetable into your weekly rotation of nutrient dense meals.

Ingredients

2lb summer squash and or Zucchini diced
1 large onion diced
4 cloves garlic finely chopped
2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 cups chicken broth
8oz silken tofu
1 cup peas frozen or fresh
1 bunch fresh basil
2 heaped tbsp miso paste
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Instructions

Put the olive oil in a large soup pan and add the onion, garlic and squash.
Sauté very gently with a lid on the pan for 15 minutes or until the squash are softened.
Add the chicken broth, tofu, peas and whole bunch of basil.
Using a hand held blender or in batches in a food processor or standing blender, whizz the soup until it is smooth and return to the pan.
Bring the soup back to simmer and turn off the heat.
Add the miso paste once the soup has cooled a little so that you keep the fermented ‘live’ properties of the miso.
Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Serves 4-6