5 Spice Onion Soup - Healthy Food Tip and Recipe

healthy food tip and recipe

Today's Recipe If you don't know what to serve for dinner tonight ...
This Asian-flavored onion soup is a great tasting addition to your Healthiest Way of Eating. It combines onions with shiitake mushrooms for a delicious and unique flavor experience. Enjoy!

5 Spice Onion Soup
Prep and Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:

• Onion Broth
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 TBS + 6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 1/2 inch fresh peeled ginger, sliced
• 6 whole cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick, about 4 inches long
• 3 star anise
• 1/2 tsp dried fennel seeds
• 6 whole dried medium shiitake mushrooms
• 1 TBS soy sauce
• 1 TBS blackstrap molasses
• 
  
• Additional Soup Ingredients
• 2 onions, cut in half and sliced thin
• 6 cloves garlic, sliced
• salt and white pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Chop 1 onion. Thinly slice two onions and garlic, which will later be added.
2. To prepare onion broth, heat 1 TBS chicken or vegetable broth in medium soup pot. Healthy Sauté chopped onion over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until translucent. Add 6 cups of chicken or vegetable broth and remaining onion broth ingredients and stir. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer ingredients briskly together for 20 minutes, uncovered. This will bring out a lot of flavor from the ingredients.
3. In a separate medium sized stainless steel skillet, heat 1 TBS of the onion broth over medium heat. Healthy Sauté sliced onions over medium low heat in broth, stirring often for about 5 minutes, until translucent. Add garlic and sauté for another minute.
4. After cooking broth for 20 minutes strain while it is still hot and return liquid to pan.
5. Slice mushrooms (and discard rest of strained ingredients) and return to broth.
6. Add sautéed onions and garlic and season with salt and white pepper to taste.

Serves 4 Serving suggestions: Serve with

• Napa Cabbage Salad

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In-Depth Nutritional Profile for 5 Spice Onion Soup
Healthy Food Tip
I notice "soy lecithin" as an ingredient in some foods. Does it contain the goitrogenic compounds that is found in the soybean itself?

Lecithin is a complicated mixture of molecules that are especially concentrated in egg yolks, soybeans, and wheat germ. Three components are especially plentiful in lecithin. These components are phosphatidylcholines, phosphatidylethanolamines, and phosphatidylinositols. Lecithin is found in the cell membranes of all cells, including human cells.
Soybeans are sometimes referred to as "goitrogenic" because they contain substances that can interfere with production of thyroid hormones under certain circumstances. These substances are called isoflavones and are naturally occurring substances found in numerous foods that are known to have a variety of health-supportive properties. Especially in the case of women's health surrounding the stage of menopause, isoflavones have been shown to provide risk-lowering benefits in the areas of cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer.
With respect to potential interference with thyroid function, I want to emphasize the words "under certain circumstances" when it comes to soy foods. Several research studies have repeatedly shown that it only during times of measurable iodine deficiency that soy isoflavones have an unwanted impact on thyroid function. In other words, for individuals who have normal amounts of iodine in their body, the risk posed by soybean consumption appears to be extremely low.
When it comes to soy lecithin, the risk posed is even lower, since lecithin does not contain isoflavones. Those substances are left behind in the unused part of the soybeans when lecithin is extracted from them. For all of the reasons I've described above, I do not have concerns about the use of soy lecithin in processed foods from the standpoint of thyroid function. However, I always prefer whole, natural, organically grown foods (like the soybeans themselves) as a source of nourishment in comparison to processed components like soy lecithin.
For more on this topic, please see:

• An Up-to-Date Look at Goitrogenic Substances in Food