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The Best Herbs For Winter Soup Season

There is nothing quite like the joy of a cozy bowl of soup with a thick slice of sourdough bread as the white snow starts to blanket the ground and the darkness starts to set in. During this time of year, homemade soups bring us so much healing in the winter. The lack of sunlight and cold, dry air can affect our health tremendously. The holidays can bring on a lot of stress with the obligatory socializing. During a time when we are supposed to be focusing more on introspection and rest. Following nature’s cues that tell us to hibernate and prepare for spring’s arrival. But our culture does the opposite, causing the onset of many illnesses like colds, flus, and depression. The lack of sun and movement can get us stuck in unhealthy patterns.  Incorporating more healing herbs into your favorite hearty winter soups can be a great place to start protecting your health in the winter. In this blog, I share some of my favorite classic and traditional Chinese Medicine herbs that I keep stocked in the winter. Read about their benefits and add your favorites to your winter soup to build immunity, protect your vital energy, improve kidney health, and more.

Bone Broth

The best way to make a great soup full of herbal wellness is through a bone broth. Since I am vegan, I created a bone broth alternative recipe you can try, with or without the bone. Making your medicinal winter vegetable broth is a great way to avoid what is questionably sold in those plastic cartons from the grocery store. Creating a homemade stock is simple and doesn’t take long. Plus, you can use your food waste. Making the base of any soup more affordable and wholesome at the same time. I put my veggie scraps in a bag in the freezer and then add them into a slow cooker or large pot for 4-6 hours with whatever herbs call to me. Slow cooking so the herbs have time to infuse the water with all their medicinal goodness. Here are a few of my favorite things to add during the winter. 

Traditional Chinese Medicine Herbs for Winter

Astragalus (huang qi)

Astragalus is a fundamental herb used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to tonify qi. Bringing warmth to the body. When qi is depleted, it creates weakness, tiredness, apathy, breathlessness, clammy palms, and vulnerability to infections.  Astragalus is subtly sweet, treating the spleen, lungs, kidneys, and stomach qi. Helping with spleen deficiency like pale face, fatigue, tired extremities, diarrhea, and bruising easily. Strengthening the lungs when dealing with cough, wheezing, and shortness of breath. Astragalus strengthens metabolism, respiration, and immunity.  It can be effective when used to heal severe liver damage and uncommon disease patterns. Practitioners use it for skin wounds, colds and flu, chronic stress, anemia, diabetes, high cholesterol, respiratory infections, allergies, chronic fatigue syndrome, and heart disease. It is antibacterial, antiviral, diuretic, and vasodilator. This can be a great ally for you if you are typically susceptible to illness as the seasons change. 

Astragalus is one of my favorite herbs I incorporate into my winter meals. Since it is a tonic herb, it offers deep nourishment, supplementation, and strengthening properties. Adding the root slices directly to my Vegan Alternative Bone Broth, a homemade veggie stock I keep on hand all winter long. This makes the perfect medicinal base for ramen soup and hearty vegetable soups full of winter health benefits. This can commonly be found at your local apothecary or through Plum Dragon Herbs.

Contraindications: those with autoimmune disorders should avoid astragalus.

Ancestral Dreams Herbal Tea

He Shou Wu (Fo- Ti) 

It is another classic Chinese herb that tonifies the kidneys and liver. It is bitter, sweet, astringent, and slightly warm. It nourishes the blood, fortifying kidney essence (our life essence) and yin deficiency. These states can include symptoms like dizziness, blurred vision, premature grey hair, weakness in the knees and lower back, sore limbs, and insomnia. It is commonly used because it has neutral energetics that are not too cold, warm, dry, or moist. Practitioners use it to relieve fire toxicity (heat conditions), unblock and moisten bowls, expel wind and dryness from the skin, and secure and strengthen sexual energy. 

He Shou Wu powder can be used as a supplement to put in anything while cooking in the winter. Supplement your life essence and blood, blacken your hair, strengthen your bones and muscles, and eliminate dampness in the body by adding this to your winter wellness routine. Create your very own winter wellness spice blend and add the powder to the mix. 

Rosemary

It is a popular herb used in soups, and it is my favorite fresh herb to add to a creamy potato soup or savory broccoli cheddar. Rosemary adds a very inviting and happy aroma to anything you add it to. It is considered an incredible brain herb, among other things. Aromatic herbs like rosemary help us maintain internal warmth in the winter. It is mainly considered a circulatory stimulant that benefits the heart,  liver, and digestion, boosting mood and improving cognitive function and memory. You can feel that with the slightest whiff of the potent scent. Rosemary is high in antioxidants. Helping with oxidized stress and inflammation disorders like arthritis. It can be effective in relieving cold and flu. It warms you up when you have chills and helps move congestion in the lungs and sinuses. This is one of the main herbs I like to use fresh because dried herbs never seem strong enough. I will buy it from the grocery stores in the winter since it doesn’t grow very easily in the harsh Colorado winters. But dried rosemary is a good choice for your custom winter spice mix you can add to anything. 

Bay Leaf

Bay leaf is essential for vegetable soups like chili, goulash, and vegetable barley. It adds an entirely different depth of flavor to soups of all kinds. Whenever I forget to add it, the soups often taste bland. You only need small amounts of bay leaf, two to three leaves for one pot of soup. Bay leaves have powerful antioxidant content. It is a powerful plant medicine for those with diabetes. It helps control blood sugar spikes, lowers cholesterol, and improves insulin sensitivity. Other traditional uses have been for cancer, arthritis, ulcers, poor digestion, bacterial infection, viral infections, wound healing, and mosquito repellent. 

*Bay leaves are always taken out because the nature of the leaf can cause disruption and blockages in the intestine.

Black Pepper (Hu Jiao)

What seems like a common ingredient in the Western world is used in our cooking without a second thought. Adding warmth and aromatic spice to soups. Black pepper is one of the best winter spices due to its ability to disperse cold and its high antioxidant content. Black, blue, and purple foods are considered for winter health due to their high antioxidants—these colors are associated with the water element according to the Five Element system TCM. When we enter the winter, it is known as the water element. Black pepper specifically treats colds in the stomach, which causes pain, poor appetite, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea—benefiting digestion by encouraging movement of qi, helping improve the absorption of micronutrients, break down of fat cells, regulating blood sugar levels, and reducing the cause of inflammation. Grind whole peppercorns fresh in a pepper grinder or mortar and pedestal for best results. 

Sage Leaves

Sage has the longest growing season in my garden, so it is easy to use fresh late into the winter. Sage has a strong aroma that pairs nicely with all kinds of soups. Butternut squash,  mushroom soups, vegetable dumplings, white bean, vegetable barley. All the savory, hearty soups that are the perfect nourishment during the winter. Practitioners from all the ancient traditions of medicine have been using sage as medicine. In Latin, sage (salvare) means to save or cure. Sage is a profound medicine for brightening mood and improving concentration and memory. It helps prevent age-related mental decline, among many other benefits like curing a sore throat, dermatitis, eczema, dermatitis, diabetes, herpes, and ulcers. In TCM, it is used to help cure cardiovascular disease by slowing plaque build-up in the arteries.

Garlic

If you ever want to make an extra tasty soup, you will need some garlic. Garlic is one of the main ingredients in most soup recipes because of its powerful flavor and incredible medicinal powers you may not know about. Garlic is a key medicine for fighting off colds and touches of flu and is often used in herbalism this way. Fermented garlic honey is something I always keep on hand in the winter because it works its magic quickly and makes the illness disappear. Garlic also has other incredible health benefits, such as preventing or decreasing chronic diseases like arteriosclerosis, stroke, cancer, immune disorders, aging, arthritis, and cataracts. It is also known for strengthening the heart and keeping the blood fluid.  Add fresh garlic or garlic powder to any soup or spice blend to warm it up and add a strong, pungent flavor. For extra flavor, I love to roast them in the toaster oven before adding them to anything. 

 Make Your Own Spice Blends

Another way to get creative with adding more healing to your winter soups and all your meals is by creating your own spice blends for your favorite go-to meals. I love creating my own spice blends to add to ramen, baked goods, curries, tacos, breakfast foods, and so much more. They are a great addition to your spice cabinet. Use classic spices in your blends, such as garlic, rosemary, sage, thyme, basil, cumin, and paprika. Then throw in a few herbal twists like astragalus, he shou wu and medicinal mushrooms. An easy recipe you could start with could be using all the herbs and spices I have listed. It would make the perfect mix. The world of medicinal and Chinese herbs is endless and full of healing potential. There are so many plant medicines that we can incorporate to add more flavor to our favorite soups. These are just a few of my favorites specific to winter health. But the possibilities are endless. You can get creative and have fun with it. 

*Consult your health care professional before using any supplements or herbal formulas, particularly if you are pregnant, plan to become pregnant or are breastfeeding.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

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