Colorado Springs Chef, Gardener and Nutritionist Offers Tips for Making Fall Harvest Soups | Way of life

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As the leaves turn golden brown and the evenings get cooler, it’s time to start thinking about making soul-satisfying soup. We chatted with a chef, gardener, and physiotherapist to get some ideas on using fall harvest veggies to make a healthy, heartwarming bowl.

“Soup is definitely our thing at The Margarita (at PineCreek),” said Cathy Werle, who has been the Senior Soup Chef for the past 20 years.

Soup making started with Patti Burlison, owner of The Margarita, who started the breakfast tradition of soup, salad and bread that continues today. She made soup in her first restaurant on Avenue Bonfoy in 1969, which was actually in her grandmother’s house.

“One of our favorite soups in the fall is the sweet potato and coconut curry,” Werle said.

To increase the protein content of this creamy soup, she adds chickpeas and kale, then “lots of spices to make it a hearty and tasty bowl of goodness,” she said.

The Margarita also has a potato-apple-white-cheddar bisque.

“It has the rich creamy feel,” Werle said, “but it’s not that greasy because we get the creaminess from the mashed potatoes, and the fall apples and white cheddar add a touch. little spice. “

At home, Werle enjoys making chili to enjoy while watching football, but she gets more creative with her ingredients.

“I made vegetarian versions of the chili by adding butternut squash or sweet potatoes,” she said.

Eric Viedt, her partner and also the chef at The Margarita, recently smoked onions and sweet potatoes to make a souped version of chili that the couple call “smoked sweet potato-black bean-quinoa stew.”

“It was filling and smoky and spicy just a bit,” Werle said.

In addition to some fall veggies, she likes to add lots of grains and beans to her soups.

“We love white beans, chickpeas, barley, farro, whatever you want,” she said. “When we get into our colder weather, we’ll make a posole made with simmered pork and lots of red chili peppers. My favorite fall veggies are butternut squash, delicata squash, pumpkin, sweet potatoes – which I eat all year round – and, of course, fall fruits like apples and pears.

Mary Jo Campbell, who writes the YourPeakEnergy.com blog on eating healthy foods, says soup is one of her favorite fall meals.

“I can or freeze as many vegetables from my garden as I can and use them to make soup all winter,” she said.

A passionate gardener, she grows butternut squash and enjoys combining it with sweet potatoes and apples for a mashed squash soup.

“I also grow a lot of carrots and made a vegetable stew with potatoes, celery, onions, leeks and maybe chicken or beef added,” she said. “I also made a minestrone soup and a corn-potato-bacon chowder.”

Meridith Barrett Norwood, physiotherapist at Cornerstone Physical Therapy, has a Facebook group, HolisticU, where she offers healthy eating options.

“I pretty much make weekly menus, which feature dairy-free, gluten-free, and paleo-free recipes,” she said.

A lot of her soup recipes are from Pinterest, and she uses the Instant Pot and Crock-Pot a lot for soups and meals. They are useful since she works.

“Because most of my family doesn’t eat cereal, I choose the recipes this way,” she said. “One of my favorite right now is the chicken pie soup. It brings back childhood memories, is healthy and you can do it in the Instant Pot.

She enjoys making bone broth soups. She makes her own broth every time she cooks meat with bones and skin. Then she freezes it so it’s ready when she needs to make soup.

“Bone broth, not just broth or even poor quality processed broth,” she said. “Bone broth is super gut healing.”

She uses the Instant Pot to make bone broth. Here’s how she does it:

• Place the bones and skin of a roast chicken or chicken thighs / drumsticks or a whole turkey carcass in the pot. You can add vegetables like celery, carrots or onions.

• Cover the bones with water up to the maximum fill line.

• Add about 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.

• Run the broth cycle on the pot twice. “I just feel like it helps pull a little more marrow out of the bones by running it twice,” she said.

• Pass the bones through a colander. Remove the pieces of meat still present and add them to the broth.

• Let the broth cool, then freeze it in 4 cup batches. This makes it easy to remove for making rice, she said, “which increases the level of nutrition” or for making soups.

You can follow the same process to make beef bone broth. Stock bones can be purchased at Whole Foods and at local meat markets.

Farmers’ markets are still teeming with produce, so take one of these ideas and set off to collect some ingredients. You’ll be curled up with a hearty bowl of soup in no time!


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