This dish is as easy and simple as it gets but packed with flavor. I just ate it mixed with quinoa but it is the perfect side dish for your holiday meals, adding an air of unconventionality and flair to say your Thanksgiving dinner. It is not a usual suspect. Green Beans and mushrooms are often found on the Thanksgiving table but because here in California, I can easily find asparagus at this time, I chose to use asparagus as they have a lot less lectins compared to green beans. By all means use green beans for this recipe if green beans are available and you don’t give a diddly squat about lectin levels.

  It’s really no secret, broccoli is considered to be one of the top 12 power house vegetables we should be eating, according to webmd broccoli is filled with cancer fighting phytochemical compounds, vitamins including a serious dose of Vitamin C (135% of the RDI for one cup of  broccoli) and minerals. Its bioactive compounds reduce inflammation. As a matter of fact the compound sulforaphane amply found in broccoli, has been shown to decelerate the biochemical action of aging by optimizing anti-oxidant gene expression.

For the next six weeks, till the end of the year I will be posting 1-2  holiday meal side dishes a week, ( I will call them #holidaysides2021), which can be served throughout the holiday season. They will be pretty easy, unfettered, uncomplicated, totally delicious and completely complimentary to whatever you serve during your festivities. As always, plant based, gluten-free and without refined sugars.

The creamy and pureed soup is dairy free, mild in licorice from the fennel and sweet in flavor from the pear. Since I featured GARA this week in my Visit With… blog, I decided to incorporate their fennel hydrosol, to add more fennel depth of flavor, distilled from organic fennel seeds. The fennel hydrosol of course is completely optional. The fennel hazelnut relish was something I concocted recently and I added chili flakes which gives this dish a little kick. It is a really tasty addition to the soup. Nutritionally, fennel bulb is a good source of Vitamin C, the bulb and the fennel seeds both contain manganese which has been shown to assist in enzyme activation, blood sugar regulation, cellular protection, wound healing and bone development. I love to drink a cup of fennel seed tea nightly because I notice it settles my stomach and benefits my digestion. Just put a spoon full of the seeds into a mesh strainer and pour hot water over the seeds and steep for 6-7 minutes. In the meanwhile enjoy this beautiful seasonal soup. Check out fennel’s many health benefits here.

Soup season has just begun. As we head into the fall and winter months, hearty and nourishing and healthy soups become the mainstay in my home. A hearty miso soup can be an entire meal if done correctly, filled to the brim with copious amounts of noodles and veggies.

This recipe was featured in the Fall issue of Naturally Danny Seo. Now that that issue is off the news stand, I am sharing the recipe here too. I’ll keep you posted for my upcoming column in this quarterly, healthy living magazine, founded by my friend and sustainable living lifestyle guru, Danny Seo. I feel so lucky living in California, where we get really good Mexican food.

I find figs to be such a sensual fruit, juicy with robust flesh. In the 16th Century Baroque master Caravaggio’s painting Basket of Fruit there are four figs, all four plump, luscious and bursting with ripeness. They are the fruit of the ficus tree which to my surprise is part of the Mulberry family. Cultivated for centuries, the fig, historically, symbolize unity, truth and universal understanding.They are on my list of top 5 favorite fruits, they satisfy my occasional sweet tooth craving, since I have cut out refined sugars from my diet. I snack on fresh figs often when in season and love to include them in an arugula salad with walnuts and fresh goat cheese.  Figs are high in fiber, so they make a great natural laxative.