Apple and Mixed-Vegetable Soup

Why people make this soup

Apples are an alkaline fruit, rich in potassium and free of purines, which makes them a friendly food for people prone to gout — traditionally said to help reduce uric-acid build-up and support its clearance. Simmered with carrot, celery, wood-ear and water chestnut, this clean, sweet pot is also associated with calming the liver and supporting healthy blood pressure and lipids — handy for gout-prone folks who also watch their cholesterol or pressure.

Method

1. Rinse the apples, core and cut into chunks; soak the wood-ear and remove stems; rinse and segment the celery; peel and chunk the water chestnuts and carrot.
2. Put everything in a pot with 2.4 L of water and simmer about 1 hour, down to 1.2–1.5 L.
3. Eat the soup with the solids.

Nourilo’s Tips

This soup is clean and sweet — the whole family can drink it. As an everyday wellness soup you can add lean pork, giving it a nourishing, beautifying, lightening quality. If you want to keep it as a strained tea in the fridge, always strain out the solids first — wood-ear left soaking in the soup too long changes chemically and is best not consumed.