This Gut Healthy Turmeric Vegetable Broth recipe is full of ingredients designed to improve immune function, reduce inflammation and provide cancer fighting antioxidants.
Note – This post was originally published in 2017, but the pictures and post have been updated and reshared.
Gearing Up for Cold & Flu Season
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but cold & flu season is upon us.
My youngest started elementary school and we are three weeks in. Guess what he learned first…how to catch a cold.
Nothing tests your immunity quite like a child’s first year of school.
Immunity Boosting Foods
But fear not, there is hope! Besides constant hand-washing, you can help boost your immunity with gut-healthy foods.
What Does Your Gut Do?
The “gut” is your body’s gastrointestinal tract. It starts working from the moment food enters your mouth and doesn’t stop until it’s absorbed or excreted from your body.
It’s the largest sensory organ in the body, makes up 70% of the immune system and contains trillions of bacteria…which is more than the total number of cells in the entire body.
If you were to spread the entire GI tract out flat, it would cover a tennis court!
The gut plays a vital role in immunity. It provides the body with essential nutrients, digesting food, absorption, excretion and fighting off pathogens.
Digestive disorders are a sign that your gut isn’t working correctly. Improper gut function can be associated with IBS, decreased immune function, heartburn, nausea and vomiting, constipation, gas, bloating, and malabsorption.
What Causes GI Disorders?
A number of things can cause a problem with the functioning of your gut. Some common causes include:
- stress
- inflammation
- decreased healthy bacteria levels
- overindulgence of sugar, processed foods, sugar alcohols and food additives
- poor diet
How Can You Improve your Gut Health?
Finding the root cause of your GI distress should be the first step. Check with your physician or health professional to make a plan before making any changes to diet/medications. An elimination diet can help you determine if there are certain foods your body finds problematic.
Balancing your bacteria is one area you can take to ensure a healthy gut. Consuming probiotic/prebiotic rich foods can help restore gut bacteria levels. Including Omega-3 rich foods (fish, flax, walnuts, chia seeds), fiber and Flavanoids (found in fresh fruits and vegetables) can all play an important role in immunity and gut function. Turmeric and ginger containing foods are being studied for their role on inflammation. This Turmeric Curry Yogurt Dip is an easy way to include fresh turmeric in your everyday life.
Interested in learning more, check out this helpful article on the Benefits of Turmeric from Lyfe Botanicals.
Probiotics are live bacteria that live in your digestive tract and aid in digestion by “cleaning” the gut so that things flow smoothly. They are found in cultured dairy products (yogurt) and fermented foods (kimchi, sauerkraut). Check out this great fermented foods article by Foodal for more info on fermented foods. It’s full of fantastic information and healthy recipes you can make at home.
Prebiotics are the non-digestible parts of your food that the probiotic bacteria in your gut use as food. Some prebiotic rich foods include chicory root, leeks, onion, and garlic.
The more food (prebiotics) that your gut bacteria (probiotics) have to eat, the more effective the bacteria work and the healthier your gut will be.
Gut Healthy Turmeric Vegetable Broth
This recipe is full of fresh vegetables and ingredients designed to support healthy gut function, reduce inflammation, boost immunity and provide cancer fighting antioxidants.
To be 100% honest I had never been a huge fan of vegetable broth before I made this recipe. I often found it bland and kind of boring but this soup is anything but bland.
The vegetables provide a hearty base for the broth, but the real flavor comes from the garlic, turmeric and ginger. I let it simmer and reduce for almost 4 hours to really add flavor and pull those nutrients out of the ingredients into the broth itself.
You can use it as a base for soup but I actually just enjoy sipping on a warm mug of this broth. It’s so warming and tasty!
Turmeric Vegetable Broth
Ingredients
- 1 gallon water
- 1 onion roughly chopped (skin removed)
- 2 carrots roughly chopped
- 2 parsnips roughly chopped
- 4 stalks celery roughly chopped
- 1 leek chopped (green and white parts)
- 4 cloves garlic halved
- 1 knob ginger sliced
- 3 tbsp freshly grated turmeric + scraps leftover from grating put both in soup
- 1 bunch parsley
- 1/2 – 1 tsp salt to taste
- 1 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a large stock pot
- Cover with water and place on stove over medium-high heat
- Let stock come to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover
- Allow stock to simmer for 3-4 hours
- Using a fine mesh strainer, strain soup and discard vegetables (or use elsewhere)
- Serve alone or as broth base for soup
- Allow broth to cool before storing in fridge/freezer
- Note – I didn’t peel the carrots, ginger, or parsnips since I wasn’t keeping the scraps afterwards. If you plan on using the cooked vegetables after in a different dish, you may want to peel them.
I faced the same situation when my kids first attended school! I used to give them a lot of soups and other home made concoctions. We use a pinch or two of turmeric in most of our dishes. Love your broth recipe and planning to make it this weekend.
Thanks so much PJ! It’s so hard when they start school because they become little germ machines but I love the idea of adding a pinch of turmeric to most of the dishes at home. Great idea.
Gorgeous colour packed with so much nutrition and tasty flavours
Thanks so much Abbey!
It is challenging to make a really tasty vegetarian broth love your combination here
Thanks so much Deborah! I felt the same way about vegetable broth but this one has be a believer!
This is so PERFECT as the weather begins to turn chilly… and you just can’t beat homemade broth! This can easily be made in large batches and stored in the freezer in quart-size freezer bags (just be sure to leave a little room for expansion). Love it that your pot shows signs of love. 😉
Great tip about leaving some room for expansion! Thanks so much Catherine!
We will need this recipe for sure! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Sarah, I gave my kids a little cup of it this morning (in a cardboard to-go coffee cup) and they loved it!
I loved the topic this month! I’m always looking for new ways to boost gut health!
I think it’s been one of my favorite monthly topics!
Love this, it looks delicious and SO healthy!
Thanks so much Lauren!
This sounds super flavourful and nourishing, can’t wait to try!
Looks so good!
I usually use chicken broth because I prefer the flavor but this looks like a SUPER flavorful vegetable broth! Will definitely have to give this one a try.
Love the vibrancy! I also love turmeric, looks amazing 🙂
Great to have a veggie broth recipe to boost immunity! Nice to know that it does not have to be bone broth!
Yum! Such a creative, wholesome recipe!
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Honey mix with tumeric bit of black pepper make into paste three half teaspoons for over 3 and three teaspoons for adults its a natural antibiotic if anyone wanted to know
If you don’t have a knob of turmeric, how much power should you use?
Lord, I meant fresh turmeric and how much powder.
Hi Stuart, thanks for your question. I would say to substitute in 1 tablespoon of turmeric powder.
[…] Gut Healthy Turmeric Vegetable Broth […]
This looks so good. I am going to make it, but I have hypertension and wonder about the potassium to counter act the salt if I use 1 tsp of salt. I don’t know how much sodium would be in a 8 ounce cup? Can you help me Brynn? Laura
Hi Laura, thanks for reaching out. I actually remade this recipe last week for a neighbor and didn’t put any salt in it because they have very strict sodium concerns. It tastes great without any so if you are worried about the sodium I would go ahead and reduce it (maybe 1/4 tsp or none at all)…I also just realized the salt in the recipe should read 1/2 tsp – 1 tsp. Not 1-2 tsp, sorry! Also the parsnips are a great source of potassium (about 500 mg per 1 cup) in this soup. However, it’s hard to say how much it is providing since they aren’t served in the soup at the end, just used to to make the broth. But you could very well chop them up afterwards and eat them with the broth (this is what my husband does with the carrots, celery, onion and parsnips in the soup). I hope this helps.
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