Healing Chicken, Cilantro & Coconut Soup
First, let me state the obvious, this soup is green. And I know what many of you may be thinking— “my kid wont touch a green soup.” I have a few tricks below that may help you encourage your kiddos to try this because in the end, this soup is one recipe that I think is really important to get our kids to enjoy often as it has so many beneficial ingredients to help their bodies thrive. Also- if you have a kiddo under the age of 2, I think they’ll gobble this up without thinking twice about the color (one of our favorite one- year-olds ate two full helpings of this the other night!)
As much as I hate thinking about it, our children are exposed to so many toxins every single day. Their little systems are bombarded with heavy metals, micro plastics, pesticides, and radon (just to name a few). But here is the wonderful thing—our kids bodies CAN detox themselves and with the help of some powerful ingredients we can rest assured that we’re able to help aid in some of the natural detox processes.
This soup is loaded with a few essential ingredients that can help rid the body of heavy metals. Cilantro, garlic, ginger, jalapeño, lime and Atlantic dulse. These are the main ingredients that make up the “paste” that the chicken marinates in. And with the help of some maple syrup and coconut milk this soup isn’t overly spicy. We tested this soup on 4 young kids and they gobbled this up without saying anything about spice!
A few things that may help encourage your kids to try this soup if your worried they wont eat anything green is to have them help you chop the cilantro (it gets blended up so they can’t mess up the chopping process). This soup also has chicken in it which I know many kids consider a “safe” food. You can also serve this soup over rice which is a wonderful way to enjoy it!
Please let me know if you try this soup. We are going to put this in our weekly rotation over the winter months to help keep our systems healthy. I think this soup would also work well with salmon or tofu if chicken isn’t an option.
Healing Chicken, Cilantro & Coconut Soup
PREP TIME: 15 minutes COOK TIME: 30 MINUTES SERVES: 6
3 cups loosely packed cilantro, roughly chopped
2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into 4 pieces
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, halved, seeded, and chopped
3 scallions, roughly chopped
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
1 Tablespoon Atlantic dulse (optional)
1 teaspoon ground coriander
salt and peppet to taste
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 cups chicken bone broth
1 can full-fat coconut milk
1 Tablespoona lime juice
Preparation
In a blender, combine the cilantro, ginger, garlic, jalapeños, scallions, maple syrup, Atlantic dulse and coriander. Season with salt and pepper and blend into a paste.
Add the chicken and half of the paste to a large soup pot or dutch oven. Toss to coat the chicken and let stand for 15 minutes. Add the chicken broth and then bring the mixture to a low boil. Reduce to a high simmer and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot, and when it’s cool enough to handle, use two forks to shred the chicken.
Return the chicken to the pot, add the coconut milk and stir in the remaining cilantro paste and lime juice.
Serve warm with a side of white rice.
