Soup is the soul sister to smoothies! Filled fiber and easy to digest, soup is amazing for our energy and keeping us naturally full. Yes! Even in the summer I eat soup :).
My Tomato, Mushroom & Quinoa Soup Recipe is full of hearty, beauty and nutrient-rich beauty foods that will keep you feeling amazing!
Don’t let the heat stop you from taking full advantage of the rich goodness found in my soup recipes Beauties- for it’s an easy way to gain all the benefits without spending too much time (or money), in the kitchen!
Beauty Treasure: Tomatoes
Yes indeed, tomatoes are packed with a treasure of antioxidant benefits. A few of them include vitamin C and beta-carotene, vitamin E and mineral manganese. In terms of phytonutrients, tomatoes are basically off the chart, and include flavonones, flavonols, hydroxycinnamic acids, carotenoids, glycosides, and fatty acid derivatives.
What stands out with these red gems is their lycopene. Check out what this one study found:
Tomato and other dietary sources of lycopene were removed from the diets of postmenopausal women for a period of 4 weeks (in order to see what effect lycopene restriction would have on bone health). At the end of 4 weeks, women in the study started to show increased signs of oxidative stress in their bones and detrimental changes in their bone tissue.
So we can see that removing lycopene-containing foods (tomatoes being one of those foods), from the diet was likely to put women at increased risk of osteoporosis—arguing the importance of tomatoes and other lycopene-containing foods in the diet.
Tomatoes also help with…
Antioxidant protection: important for our bone health
Heart health: lowering total cholesterol (including LDL cholesterol and triglycerides)
Prevent unwanted clumping together (or aggregation), of platelet cells in the blood: an important factor in lowering risk of heart problems.
Anti-aggregation properties: unusual phytonutrients in tomatoes help provide us with heart-protective benefits
As our knowledge of unique tomato phytonutrients expands, we will surely learn more about the unique role tomatoes play in supporting heart health and I will be sure to add more of this beauty fruit to coming recipes!
Age-Defying Mushrooms
What I love about mushrooms is that whether you eat them raw or cooked, they retain many of their nutrients- and this is true of any type of ‘shrooms you choose to use. But today’s recipe we are going to be using the hearty Portobello.
Here are just a few of the benefits you can receive when adding mushrooms to your beauty diet rotation!
Anti-inflammatory: Inflammation has been linked to chronic disease, autoimmune disorders, pain, heart attack, and stroke. Mushrooms intake blocks function of pro-inflammatories that contribute to inflammation in the body.
Antioxidant: Mushrooms contain antioxidants, including ergothioneine5, which protects cells, fights against oxidative damage, slows aging, and protects health.
Source of B12: Mushrooms have be known to provide a valuable source of vitamin B12. The content of B12 varies from farm to farm which makes sense (this being due to growing conditions varying). We used to get B12 from unprocessed, healthy soil before the advent of modern food manufacturing—if you are all plant-based/vegan, it is still recommended that you supplement.
Mushrooms contain vitamin D, antioxidants and tons of minerals, including high levels of selenium, riboflavin, copper, niacin, tryptophan, pantothenic acid, potassium, phosphorous, zinc, manganese, thiamin, pyridoxine, and folate. Mushrooms also contain iron, calcium, fiber, and magnesium (in smaller amounts).
Nutrient-Rich: Quinoa
Oh how I love my quinoa!! I’ve been eating it for years :). Being the heartier part of this dish—quinoa is gluten-free, high in protein, and contains all nine essential amino acids.
This grain gets its overall nutrient richness from it’s high fiber, magnesium, B-vitamins, iron, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, vitamin E and various other beneficial antioxidants.
What allows quinoa to serve as a complete protein source is that it contains greater amounts of lysine and isoleucine. And something good to note is that our body will mix and match and you don’t have to get complete protein in every meal, given you eat a wide variety of whole plant foods, but it’s nice to know sources that provide it [1].
Quinoa is also great for its anti-inflammatory benefits. Daily intake of quinoa has shown the ability to lower levels of inflammation, due to the wide range of anti-inflammatory nutrients present in quinoa.
Even though quinoa has all of these great benefits, it is very important to soak grains (even though quinoa is technically a seed we treat it as a grain), at least eight hours/preferably overnight, to help deactivate the enzyme inhibitors that coat all grains (and beans), and will make them easier to digest.
Once you get in the habit, it will be a breeze. Just plan your ahead, throw some quinoa in a bowl with water the night before making this recipe, and make enough quinoa to last you a couple of days.
See full soup recipe below…
Tomato, Mushroom & Quinoa Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 cups vegetable broth
- 2 Tbs. coconut oil
- 1 cup celery diced
- 1/2 cup shallots diced
- 3 cups chopped tomato
- 1 cup sliced Portobello mushrooms
- 1 cup baby spinach
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- Sea salt to taste
Instructions
- In a medium pot, heat coconut oil on medium. Add celery and shallots, and cook 8 minutes or until golden, stirring.
- Add broth and chopped tomatoes. Heat to simmering on medium.
- Add mushrooms and cooked quinoa. Simmer 8 to 10 minutes or until starches and veggies are softened.
- Remove from heat.
Let me know what your favorite soup is, and don’t forget to add this recipe to your Dinner Recipes Pinterest Board!
Love,
Kimberly
Oh my goodness, lil bub has so many teeth!! He’s so cute.
I’m wondering why one might want to use shallots in a recipe over onions or vis versa? Is there a stronger flavor?
Thanks! ❤️
Hi Shay and thanks for your great question. I think it’s really just a personal preference but shallots do have less of a bite to them and are great for when using in raw salads. I wrote a blog about why I’m personally taking a break from onions and garlic (https://bit.ly/2vBopQE) for a bit– this is when it’s great to have other choices to add into our recipes. Try it both ways and let me know what you think. Lots of love and support to you! ;)
This is really delicious! I subbed in sprouted tri color rice in for the quinoa and oh my. Thank you Kimberly as always <3
You’re so welcome and thanks for sharing your feedback. Lots of love and support to you! ;)
I really liked this soup. The recipe A LOT of soup. I was thinking about freezing a portion, but I ended up eating it all as snacks and meals over a three days. Even my husband, who was in recovery mode after a Spartan Race, admitted that it had all the key nutrients he needed. He ate it for dinner and passed up his whey-based protein shake. It was also super easy to make. I cooked it alongside our regular dinner.
Thanks so much Beauty Detox Follower for sharing such great feedback and thrilled to hear you gobbled it all up. I love my soups too! Sending you lots of love and continued support! ;)
In the photo it says add fresh basil but the ingredient list only says fresh spinach. Which one is the correct one for this recipe?
Hi Gloria…thanks for catching this error- it’s been updated. The correct ingredient would be spinach but feel free to add a little basil if you think you’d like the flavor with this dish too. Lots of love to you and let us know what you think! ;)