Kombucha, for those of you not familiar with it, is a lightly carbonated fermented green tea, a real health tonic and absolutely delicious!

It’s an adaptagen, not a cure all, and brings the body back into balance or homeostasis, which benefits the entire body, rather than a specific organ or system.
Kombucha gradually detoxifies the body so the immune system can function optimally. Think of it as a filter cleaner, where the filter is your liver!

It contains a myriad of beneficial compounds including organic acids, antioxidants, vitamins, probiotics including many strains of beneficial bacteria and yeasts.


Here are some of the ways that regular kombucha drinking can improve your health!

• Reduces stress
• Supports healthy digestion and regulates elimination through the bowels
• Lowers cholesterol
• Regulates blood sugar
• Detoxifies the body and supports liver and kidney function.
• Increases energy and metabolism.
• Alleviates joint pain
• Boosts the Immune system
• Supports the body through chemo or radiotherapy
• Kills parasites
• Eliminates candida
• Alleviates IBS and digestive issues
• Heals ulcers and acid reflux

That’s a pretty impressive list for a delicious sparkling drink you can make yourself at home.



If you want to join me on any of my Fermented Drinks Workshops to learn how to do Kombucha, Kefir and other drinks, just click here

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I adapted this recipe from Italian minestrone so it has the same base flavours of tomato, onion and garlic. I decided to replace the white pasta with much healthier brown rice which makes the soup   gluten free   and the addition of some beans adds   fibre, protein and minerals and really makes this a complete meal in a bowl! 

You can add whatever veggies you have to ring the changes but peppers, green beans, carrots, leeks, courgettes, frozen peas and finely shredded greens of some sort all work really well and add loads of antioxidants, minerals and vitamins, strengthening literally every body system.
It's still wild garlic season so I am making the most of it by adding it to as many  dishes as I can.
It's delicious, highly nutritious and it's free so get yourself out to your nearest woodland and let your nose guide you to  swathes of gorgeous  wild garlic!

Any beans work, flageolet, cannelini, haricot, butter beans are all great.
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I am a big fan of nutritional yeast  flakes so add a   couple of tablespoons   to your soup or sprinkle some on as a garnish. They add great flavour, loads of minerals and vitamins and  make the soup lovely and creamy!

So without further ado, here is the recipe, I hope you enjoy it....!


VEGAN RICE AND BEAN SOUP  WITH WILD GARLIC

INGREDIENTS

• I large onion, finely chopped
• 1 leek, finely sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
• 2 medium carrots, finely diced
• 1 medium or 2 small firm courgettes, finely diced
• 1 red pepper, finely diced
• 2 sticks celery, chopped
• a large bunch  of finely shredded wild garlic
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 small cup of brown rice
• 1 tin butterbeans or other white beans like cannellini or haricot
• 2 litres vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon red pesto (optional)
• 1 or 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes (optional)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil or rapeseed oil
• Sea salt to season


• METHOD

1. Chop all the vegetables into fairly small pieces.
2. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large soup pot and sauté the onion and leek for 5 minutes on medium heat. Add the chopped carrots, courgettes, pepper, celery and garlic and cook stirring for another 5 minutes.
3. Add the tinned tomatoes, rice, beans and stock, bring to the boil then simmer for 30 to 40 minutes    until the rice is cooked .
4. Finely shred the wild garlic and add to the pot , turn the heat off, put the lid on and let the wild garlic wilt.
5. Stir in the pesto if using and season with sea salt.
6. If the soup is too thick just add more stock. 
7. You can garnish with a good sprinkling of nutritional yeast flakes    or seaweed flakes for an extra nutritional and flavour boost.

Wild Garlic Kimchi

This is a great way to preserve all the lovely wild garlic. You can make it as hot as you like by adding more chilli flakes. The Korean chilli flakes are called gochugaru, they also come in powder form and are very hot! I am a chilli wimp and  can't deal with spicy food at all so I only add one tablespoon of chilli flakes!  I was advising my  lovely friend Sumayya Usmani   on  some ferments for an event she is organising, so Iet her   decide how spicy  she wanted it! It was way spicier than I could eat but she is an expert with spices  and the joy of making your own is you can  adjust flavourings and spices to suit your taste!
This is a fast ferment, around 7 days, so not too long before you can eat it!

Ingredients

• A carrier bag full of wild garlic ( about 800g to 1kg roughly)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons grated ginger
• 1 to 3 tablespoons chilli flakes, depending how hot you like it
• 1 tablespoon sea salt or himalyan salt
• 1 daikon/ mooli grated
• 2 medium carrots, grated
• 1 or 2 tablespoons seaweed flakes (optional)

Method

1. Simply wash and roughly chop the wild garlic leaves and stems.
2. Keep any unopened buds, you can ferment separately in 2% brine (20g sea salt dissolved in 1 litre filtered water)
3. Transfer wild garlic to a large bowl or plastic basin, sprinkle in salt, leave for 30 mins to an hour.
4. Massage and squeeze the wild garlic until brine starts to pool at the bottom of the bowl.
5. Add the chilli flakes, grated ginger, grated carrot and daikon and give it another good mix.
6. Pack the mixture into a large glass mason jar or 2 smaller jars. Press it down firmly.
7. Top with water filled ziplock bag to keep oxygen out & keep veggies submerged under the brine
8. Put lid on loosely, set aside to ferment for 5 to 7 days. Taste it after 5 days, decide whether it tastes sour enough. It’s a matter of personal taste so just keep trying it until you like it!
9. Once you are happy with the flavour you can store the kimchi in the fridge where the flavour will deepen and it will keep happily for months, if it lasts that long!!