This healthy soup recipe is perfect on a chilly day! Full of delicious naturally sweet squash and chestnuts, hearty aduki beans, as well as nourishing kale, it will warm you to the bone. Better yet? It’s a one pot meal that can be thrown together quickly, and it’s good for you too! This easy soup recipe is wonderful for those with gluten, dairy, and other allergies.
Over the last month I have received comments here from numerous people despondent over their dietary options, or lack thereof. The touching aspect? Each person thanks me profusely for this website, for providing them with options and offering new ways to enjoy the foods they can eat.
The heartbreaking aspect of these same emails? People express their feelings of loneliness and isolation. If you are feeling isolated because of your dietary restrictions (heck, I don’t eat soy, corn, potatoes, grains, and white sugar) then feel free to leave a comment right here sharing your trials and tribulations.
Those of us on a restricted diet can gather here for community.
Whether you come to this site because you have dietary dilemmas or you just like to eat good food, join in and let us all know about one of the following:
-Do you have a special success/disaster cooking story?
-Is there a particular dish that you take to parties that wows people?
-What advice would you like to hear from others?
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Go ahead, leave a comment; let all of us out here know what’s on your mind.
Squash Aduki Chestnut Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
- 1 leek, washed and chopped
- 1 cup butternut or acorn squash, peeled and cubed
- 2 quarts Chicken Stock , vegetable stock, or Kettle & Fire Bone Broth
- 1 cup aduki beans, cooked
- 1 cup cooked chestnuts
- 1 head kale, chopped
Instructions
- In a large pot, warm oil over medium-high heat
- Sauté leek for 10 minutes until soft
- Add squash and sauté for 5 minutes
- Pour stock into pot and bring to a simmer
- Add aduki beans, chestnuts and kale
- Simmer for ½ hour to allow flavors to meld
- Serve
Equipment
Here in Colorado, it is cold and snowy yet again! Today, I will be making another big pot of this Squash Aduki Chestnut Soup to warm my bones. I love this healthy soup recipe!
Renee says
Hi Elana, I just got on your blog after being at the farmers market today, where a mushroom vendor mentioned your Thai chicken soup. So I haven’t even browsed yet, but your request on that page (about Jeanne’s question here) made me want to respond so here I am. :) while reading all the above comments, I kept thinking about the Whole30 people. While they aren’t specifically talking to or about celiac sufferers, they have all the restrictions in place that you mentioned, along with a great (free access) support group including a panel of moderators. There are enough recipes just linked to one of their question & answer pages to keep life interesting, and there are links to other paleo bloggers as well. I haven’t joined any of these groups; I fall into the category someone mentioned above, where I need a recipe or information and search for it. Also, I don’t suffer anything as traumatic as celiac disease, but tried the Whole30 last year for a chance to figure out just what exactly might be my triggers. My husband saw my results and decided to join me, and we never did go entirely back to our old eating habits because we both feel and look!) so much better now. Just thinking that a lot of your readers might find it worth looking at. BTW, I was able to check out the first book they wrote (It Starts With Food) from my library, and it had a whole section for people with severe dietary problems and restrictions. They also included adaptations to several recipes that fit the most restrictive diets. Sorry this is long; I get a bit carried away, knowing so many people are miserable and don’t know why, while the answer seems so available.
J.J. says
chestnuts. Yesterday I discovered what I didn’t know about chestnuts. I’d like to see a couple paragraphs of explanation. Seemingly there are at least two types – if not more. The waterchestnuts – can also be a flour product – and then the “nut” that comes from a tree – is also a flour product. So, when these receipes call for chestnuts – how do I know which chestnut flour to use?
Renee says
You don’t use chestnuts ground into a flour; check the link here and it will take you to a page that shows the chestnuts they mean. (The kind that grows on trees.) My guess is, they need to be sliced or chopped at least a bit, since they go in at the same time as the beans and kale. But your question fave me an idea:since fresh chestnuts are seasonal and hard to prepare, I’m going to try this first with some sliced water chestnuts. If I like the soup enough, I might try it again in the winter, when chestnuts appear in the store. It would be a nice use for them.
Christine says
The water chestnut is not a nut at all, but an aquatic vegetable that grows in marshes, underwater, in the mud. It has tube-shaped, leafless green stems that grow to approximately 1.5 metres. The small, rounded corms have a crisp white flesh and may be eaten raw, slightly boiled, or grilled and, often, are pickled or tinned. They are a popular ingredient in Chinese dishes. In China, they are most often eaten raw, sometimes sweetened. They also may be ground into a flour form used for making water chestnut cake, which is common as part of dim sum cuisine.
The chestnut group is a genus (Castanea) of eight or nine species of deciduous trees and shrubs in the beech family Fagaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.
Amanda says
I will be getting leeks, butternut squash, and kale in my CSA delivery tomorrow and will definitely be making this soup later in the week. Thanks for the healthy almost-fall soup recipe (thought I know this post is kinda dated).
elana says
Shannon,
Wow! Congrats on everything above: finding your naturopath, getting blood work done, sticking with a food program and doing so even while working in a candy store! You are amazing. It would be great if you could share your story in the forums.
Elana
Shannon says
I found your website about a month ago and I have enjoyed it immensely. The only recipe that I have made so far is the Simple Bread. And even with my terrible oven, it still came out pretty good!
Jeanne had asked for us to share our stories, so here’s mine:
~~I have always been sluggish and had A.D.D. symptoms but was never tested. Finally at the age of 36 I found an on-line ADD test and it was confirmed. Not wanting to go the conventional route, I read up a little bit on the natural approach to ADD. A co-worker suggest I find a Naturopath, so did, and boy am I ever glad!
She did a blood test for food intolerences and everything that I was eating almost daily was dragging me down. Wheat, Cane Sugar, Cow Dairy, Eggs & Garlic were the biggest culprits. Now after 6 months of cutting those foods out and a few different supplements a day I have lost 23 lbs, and have NEVER felt better. Even my seasonal allergies were practically non-existant (I usually wind up on anti-biotics for Sinus infections.)
I have started to rotate some of the foods back in and still feel great. But I will continue trying Elana’s recipes!
Did I mention that I work in a Chocolate Shop and I haven’t had Chocolate in 6 months! (cane sugar and milk traces) If I can do it anyone can!!!
elana says
Annette -This is a great point. There are definitely false positives when blood testing for celiac. Also, if a person is not on the SAD (i.e., is avoiding wheat and gluten) the test will not be accurate as the test looks for immuno-response to gluten. Thanks for your comment.
Annette says
Just because the blood test doesn’t indicate Celiac you could still have Celiac. I have a friend who tested negative the first time but since her son has Celiac and she had symptoms she had the biopsy which showed positive for Celiac.
elana says
Anina,
Thanks for sharing this great info! If only Jeanne lived in CO, we could all meet up and chat at one of my cooking classes…
xo Elana
Anina says
Hello Jeanne & Elana
I just want to try to answer some of Jeanne’s questions. I had the same struggle finding out which food allergies my son has. He had all the symptoms but blood tests came back negative all the time. A holistic doctor introduced me to Dr Kenneth Fine from Enterolab – http://www.enterolab.com. He does food allergies using a stool test. You can order the test online, it is very affordable.
For more information on why a blood test is not always positive read:
http://www.clanthompson.com/res_press.php?status=show_pr&pr_id=1
A book that I can recommend is Wheat-Free Worry-Free by Danna Korn.
Dr Rodney Ford has 2 video’s on http://www.youtube.com that are also very informative.
There is still so much I can share with you, let me know if you want to get in touch sometime.
Take care
Anina
elana says
Hi Jeanne,
It is always good to hear from you. I have been diagnosed with celiac, though like you, I found other food sensitivities through trial and error and listening to my body; my digestive system gives me pretty clear signals about what works and what doesn’t. I am glad that you are feeling better after 9 months of eliminating many different foods. You ask, “why am I so sensitive?” I think that many people are walking around in ill health without a diagnosis (say arthritis for example) and would feel better if they realized they were “sensitive” like you and me. Such a large portion of our population suffers from ill health; many do not tune into their bodies until it is more than a food sensitivity. This is just one viewpoint –what do you think?
Per your daughter, if she is still on a wheat based diet then you can get the following tests done to check for auto-immune response to gluten; they are listed here on my site. Any doc worth their salt at Kaiser will do a blood test on your daughter for celiac -especially given her symptomology –underweight/malnourishment, a possible sign of celiac.