Lemony Brussels Sprout Soup

On one of the Nutrition DVDs from Dr. Greger mentioned a study in Food Chemistry that studied the impact of specific raw foods on different cancer cell lines. The article is quite interesting and covers stomach, lung, breast, kidney, skin, pancreas, prostate, and brain cancers. I read the article with great interest and wanted to immediately put the science into practice at our house. The bottom line of the article is that vegetables in the alliums (garlic and onions) and cruciferous (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, and savoy cabbage) family tend to inhibit cancer growth. In keeping with this article I made a quick raw soup as part of dinner tonight. Here is what I made.

Lemony Brussels Sprout Soup
Serves 2

Ingredients:

½ cup raw cashews
2 cups water
4 cups Brussels sprouts
1 lemon zested and juiced, or to taste
1 tablespoon yellow onion, peeled
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
Salt and pepper to taste
Veggie bacon bits, for garnish - optional

Directions:

Place everything in your blender and puree until smooth. If using a high powered blender you can cook the soup in the blender. I only pureed it until it smooth, and slightly warm. This was done to retain the maximum amount of nutrition. Taste the soup for seasoning (salt and pepper) before serving.

To serve you can top with veggie bacon bits and freshly ground black pepper.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 272.79
Calories From Fat (39%) - 107.29

Total Fat - 11.99g
Saturated Fat - 2.17g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 812.55mg
Potassium - 1198.14mg
Total Carbohydrates - 32.84g
Fiber - 9.13g
Sugar - 7.77g
Protein - 12.55g

Comments:

This definitely tastes likes Brussels sprouts but not in the same way they taste when cooked. There is no sulfur taste in this soup. The lemon gives the soup I nice acidic background. I added the garlic and onion for a little sharpness. If you are don’t like onions and garlic raw you may want to cut the quantity in half, but that will also reduce the nutrition.

Each serving of this soup contains approximately 2,400IU of vitamin A, 210mg of vitamin C, 135mg of calcium, 200mcg of folate, 450mcg of vitamin K, 320mg of phosphorus, 135mg of magnesium, and 9.5mcg of selenium. Fairly impressive for so few ingredients and so little work.

Unrelated note:

This was my first attempt at putting the ideas in the article into practice. I will say it was easier to do than I expected although I don’t have any idea what I am going to make tomorrow. Our grocery shopping is going to change a little. Brussels sprouts, savoy cabbage and leeks will now be regular items in our refrigerator. Spinach will continue to be our green of choice.

Dan and I talked about it and we will be eating a raw garlic clove each morning and evening with our green drink. Garlic had a big impact on all the cancer cell lines tested so we decided it couldn’t hurt us to make certain we get a clove or two per day. For now we are cutting up a clove every morning and evening, and allowing it to sit for 10 minutes before we consume it with food. Please don’t try to take raw garlic without food. I have tried that and you will end up with a very nauseous feeling. As long as we take it with a full stomach we haven’t had any stomach distress.

I was so busy reading about nutrition today I didn’t get back to the almond milk yogurt. The almond milk yogurt has moved to my to-do list for tonight. I will have a modified version in the frig tonight before I get into bed. Hopefully that means I will have a recipe for you tomorrow.