UA-141369524-4

Sweet Potato Soup – Low-Sodium Comfort Soup

Sweet potato sour is one delicious comfort soup. If you like dramatic soups with a melange of umami and herby fresh flavors (like Pho broth), you’ll love this elevated sweet potato soup.

It doesn’t need salt with all the punchy flavor adds. It’s also low-sodium.

Easy sweet potato soup bowl that's low-sodium and delicious.

It’s an anti-inflammatory soup that’s great anytime of year and will be good with your favorite flavors made from fresh ingredients. 🥣

I call these penny adds because spices, herbs, and alliums are when you break down the costs. Since 2020, homemade, warm low-sodium soups are the way I roll.

After you soften and prepare your cooked sweet potatoes in a pot of heated water, that usually takes about 45 minutes on medium-high heat, you can mash them down in the water.

You can decide whether you like a thicker or thinner soup. Thinner would be with more water, and straining out the small sweet potato pieces (that you can enjoy or use separately) .

And a thicker soup would be on the opposite  spectrum, with less water. It’s kinda like deciding if you like high pulp OJ (or no pulp). And in line with cold, winter month extra Vitamin-C decisions

This sweet potato soup bowl is great for those reasons.

It’s when a bowl like this is love and hearty comfort. You can add in all your immunity flavor foods like mushrooms, red onions, more onions (green), and cilantro. 🍄‍🟫 If you like, add in your jalapeño or mild peppers. Some people like to add garlic, but I like to save some flavors for other soups.

Sweet potato soup with an egg and is low-sodium.

Shiitake mushrooms are high in Vitamin D that go well with a cold weather bowl.

I also added a jammy egg as the top bowl feature. My personal rule is if it’s savory sauce or soup, add an egg. Poaching eggs for any bowl occasion is easier done than many think.

And it’s not only delicious, it’s nutritious.

The egg yolk has less sodium than the whites, that may sound surprising when you break down an egg. That could make the yolk sunnier to some (that grew up eating only the egg whites).

And eggs in general are a way to get in more protein, and alphabet soup D, E, A, K, and B vitamins.

That’s also a good time to add in your healthy fats (olive oil, Omega 3, etc.) for better absorption. And healthy fats mean it’s a better time to take your fat-soluble daily vitamin supplements.

A bowl of soup can be the timely reminder. 😊

Then you can also add in your elevated noodles and fish sauce. I opted to add in rice (unlike Pho) and soy sauce (where a reduced low-sodium version is an option).

A drizzle of lime juice adds more zingy taste. It pairs well with the fresh cilantro. And healthy lime juice is good for preventing kidney stones and for the skin, while anti-inflammatory cilantro has many benefits including  detoxification.

…Sounds like a lot added, but they’re easy ingredients to add.

Oh, and don’t forget to add in additional proteins where the possibilities are endless… chick peas, meatballs, chicken, seafood, fish, and tofu.

In this dreamy soup bowl you can do you. 💭

If you like this soup, you may also like a turmeric soup that would be a good variety. And is perfect if all you have is the (turmeric) spice and soup warm water. It’s the simple things that are the best….

And what makes this sweet potato soup, sch-weet. 🍠

Print

Sweet Potato Soup - Low Sodium (One-Pot)

This is a delicious warming bowl of soup that you can elevate.
Course Soup
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • 3 medium to large sweet potatoes
  • 2 Tbsp green onions, finely diced
  • 2 Tbsp red onions, diced
  • 1 Tbsp cilantro (or parsley), cut
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp lime juice
  • 1 Tbsp jalapeno or bell peppers (optional)

Instructions

  • Prepare sweet potatoes: peel potatoes and cook them in a pot of water on the stovetop in medium heat until potatoes are soft.
  • Keep stove on and mash sweet potatoes (in the same pot), straining small sweet potato pieces into a separate bowl if you would like a thinner soup.
  • Add all other ingredients in the pot. If cooking raw ingredients like mushrooms, allow 3-4 minutes longer. If adding poached egg, add to pot for several minutes until the egg yolk turns translucent. For a jammy egg, add about another minute to the poached egg time and take out of the pot into your soup bowl, with a slotted or regular spoon to stop cooking.

Fresh Orange Juice (No Juicer Needed)

Fresh orange juice is a popular, year-round favorite. In the winter, oranges are in season, so you can find an abundance of oranges.

orange juice

That’s also when most people load up on Vitamin C that they associate with orange juice, and why orange juice grocery shelves can be full or running empty.

And summer is a popular time too as it’s served in vacation towns and resorts.

I share below how you can optimize an entire orange in homemade fresh orange juice squeezed by hand.

If you’re inspired by fresh juices, this is a smart idea to save money, be healthy, and enjoy conveniently at home.

And speaking of enjoyment, last week I had a nice surprise.

I won a gift card to a local smoothie place I’m inspired by. They are my inspiration for tropical smoothies.

One day I saw someone coming out of a yoga studio in my town who was carrying this mermaid blue color bowl that’s the size of a large yogurt container.

I had to find out what this healthy ingredient is!

I learned it comes from an ingredient called blue majik (that’s the magic in the blue bowl). 🥣

The South Block smoothie chain also uses ingredients like camu camu and maca root.

You feel like you’ve been invited to a new array of rainforest superfoods shipped from an exotic locale in the world and infused in your made-to-order bowl or smoothie.

It’s dreamy, no?

OK, I could go on and on excited!…

But, today I also wanted to share how you can optimize oranges in a house-made fresh orange juice.

I’ve become super sensitive to how much sugar I consume and that’s healthy motivation.

And that hopefully inspires you to think healthy food and drinks at least most of the time (as it does for me).

Vatas are attracted to oranges and sugar so this is perfect for satiating sweet cravings.

Next time you think about getting orange juice from the store, consider making your own fresh orange juice from whole oranges where there’s no added sugar.

Fresh Orange Juice

organic navel orange peel for fresh homemade orange juice.
Look for heirloom, organic, or local farmers market produce as in season (free of pesticides, good for us and the environment)

And oranges are one of my favorite fruits as I love the smell of oranges. Here’s why…

They are good for calming anxiety, aromatherapy, and if you’re leaning into the Vata mind-body ways or  wanting to restore any Vata imbalance.

If you can’t get the work life balance or life is stressful, keeping an orange near you to sniff and that’ll help calm you.

And making fresh orange juice will also in its healthy-balancing effects.

And if you feel it in your nervous digestive tract, you can try an orange elixir like this recipe:

organic navel orange peel for ayurveda drinks
Print

Orange Digestif Juice

Course Drinks
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • 1 orange (pulp, zest, peel)
  • Apple cider vinegar (amount adjustable to liking)
  • 5 Spice blend (Five spice is star anise, cloves, cinnamon, fennel, and black pepper) - (amount adjustable to liking)
  • water (dilute as needed)

Instructions

  • Zest and peel an orange. Keep all the parts. Tip: use navel, Cara Cara, blood, or heirloom oranges. They are good for the calming (and good for parasympathetic nervous system also affecting good digestion).
  • Squeeze the pulp into your orange juice container (or enjoy).
  • Add your zest and peels to the container.
  • Add five-spice blend.
  • Add apple cider vinegar
  • Fill up with water. Shake and refrigerate. Enjoy when you have an upset stomach.

There are so many orange varieties to choose from. I love the Cara Cara sweetheart orange variety (common around Christmas) that can be juicier and sweeter than a California navel orange that’s in season a little earlier.

Plus fresh orange juice makes me think of my second home, staying in nice hotels! Once upon a time I worked in hotel catering management where I got my first taste.

And you may have seen out and about those gigantic commercial machines that crank out fresh orange juice from whole oranges. That would be a fun job for a day!

You may have seen one of these at selective grocery stores if you live in a larger metro area.

Fresh orange juice definitely ruined me for any added sugar orange juice that comes from a carton (like I grew up drinking).

Concentrated is high sugar and harsh on the stomach, and especially along with a morning coffee routine that Americans commonly do. That’s double acidity.

Plus ontop of that, most common foods are usually acidic.

And if that’s your typical morning routine…

👉 You can opt for making your own organic cold brew coffee and  diluting orange juice with water.

So let’s begin and get your fresh orange juice-on!

For equipment, you can use a citrus squeezing tool, which is one of my favorite kitchen tools because it’s bright yellow so I have no choice but to be sunny with the brightening citrus when I use it 😉.

And a zester microplane tool that looks like a zester.

Orange zest from a fresh orange juice.

These are the parts of the orange.

Orange Zest (essence). Before I cut into the orange for orange juice, I go around the orange peel, grating, and capturing all the outside orange zest as essence for zhughing up other sweet morning smoothies, dishes, and garnishes (that’s where my former-catering mind goes and yours can go wild too!).

Orange Pith. Most people throw the spongy, slightly bitter part out, but consider keeping.

This would good in the orange digestif recipe mentioned already.

The orange pith is high in Vit C (as is the juicy pulp) and anti-inflammatory flavonoids. For those reasons alone, it’s worth considering mixing in foods and drinks/smoothies.

Plus leaving no traces of fruit is good for not attracting critters. 😉

Orange Juice and Pulp. Then cut the orange in half (perpendicular to the top or the stem or from left to right).

I know it’s tempting to cut the orange any which way since it’s perfectly round, but cutting the right way lets you cut through each orange segment to maximize juice.

Otherwise you could get stuck on a pillowy-feeling orange segment.

Now you’re ready to squeeze each orange half or use a citrus squeezer tool, and squeeze away the juice into a tall glass.

Let go of all your stress squeezing oranges. Activating calming oranges around you is a relaxing sensory exercise.

Keep repeating until you have the amount of juice you want. Add back pulp as desired if you like high pulp juice.

You can also add some water to dilute some or stretch the juice out for more.

And enjoy!

No-Waste Eco-Friendly Ideas: Save the orange pulp if you prefer high-pulp OJ and add small orange pieces to your drink.

Save the seed to grow a plant. Save the pulp and zest for cooking and baking recipes. Save the pith that has the most nutrients for digestifs and foods. Save the orange sticker as a reminder for getting the Produce LookUp (PLU) item again. 😉

If you like fresh juices, you may want to give Fresh Peach Juice and Mango Juice other sunny yellow inspiring fruity juices a GO.

Acidic Stomach Remedy – Alkaline Foods

Acidic stomach issues are no fun. The good news is we can remedy in our habits and counteract with alkaline foods like a tofu crumbled salad.

Acidic stomach meal plan can be a crumbled tofu salad and fresh watermelon juice that are more alkaline.
First off, ere are some common signs you have a high acidic stomach (or higher than your usual), and where you can restore to a normal PH alkaline with your diet:

-Stomach discomfort especially where your GI tract meets the upper stomach intestinal wall.

-If you drink coffee and after you’ve eaten something light, food adds discomfort to your stomach. Btw, coffee on an empty stomach can “tear up the stomach.”

-If you burp more often, and especially if that’s not common for your body.

-You know you’ve been freely eating more of whatever you want, whenever you want, and maybe a usual food offender to your stomach. Our stomachs are naturally acidic and most of the foods we eat that we enjoy are acidic so maintaining a balance between joy and health will make the difference.

-And, if you have the taste of acid washing back up your throat (referred to as acid reflux), then that’s a sure sign. Many people pop antacids like candy after meals. But that’s masking an opportunity for a better and healthy solution of changing your eating lifestyle and habits.

Here are some quick fixes you can make to alleviate acidic stomach pain or discomfort: Continue reading “Acidic Stomach Remedy – Alkaline Foods”