When people talk about nourishing, the next word I usually think of is “food.” But you can nourish yourself in a whole bunch of different ways, and I’m going to share a few with you today.
First, we nourish ourselves with downtime. Whether it’s a walk in the woods, a warm bath, a favorite daydream, a relaxing massage, a swim, a break from your iphone, a pedicure (guys, too!), a little yoga, a good book, a snuggle (with your special person), a drum circle or a prayer circle, knitting a few rows, or an earlier bedtime, these kinds of activities nourish your soul just as much as food nourishes your body. There is research to suggest that time spent out of doors in natural settings has significant beneficial effects on mood.
We nourish ourselves with activity, too. Swimming, drumming, walking, yoga. Kickball, intervals, Pilates, weights. Some people say that gardening is the key to their happiness. Sign me up!
And, of course, we nourish ourselves with food. So if you have a little time, you could try out this recipe, which was inspired by a recipe I learned this past week from another yogi.
Vegetable Soup with Chickpeas
4 tsp. olive oil
3 cups water or vegetable broth
1 large, sweet, white onion (like Vidalia), peeled and chopped coarsely
2 Tbsp. garlic, sliced thinly
1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight in plenty of fresh water
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. fresh ginger, chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped into ½ inch slices
1 red bell pepper, chopped roughly
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1” pieces
28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 cup curly parsley, chopped
Cook the onions, garlic, and olive oil in a crockpot set on high for 15-20 minutes. Rinse the chickpeas with fresh water, and add to the crockpot along with cumin, curry, ginger, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir well, and add the squash, red pepper, carrots, tomatoes, and broth (or water). Reduce heat to low, and cook 6-8 hours until carrots and squash are soft. Adjust salt and pepper, and serve with plenty of fresh parsley.
The first line says “cook in crockpot set on high”, is that a typo? My crockpots, even on high setting, take a fair amount of time to generate enough heat to cook anything. I’m curious if this should be “cook in skillet and add to crockpot”?
For sure that is an option. My current crockpot gets hot faster than my old one, and I have been using it this way, but a skillet is a smart idea. Thanks for reading YHIOYP and Grocery, both! RBS
Also – wanted to add that the book “Grocery” by Michael Ruhlman brought me here 🙂
Thank you so much for the ideas!!
You’re welcome! Thanks for reading YHIOYP!
People started to treat food as a way to solve any problem happened to them. I got stressed at the work – I’ll grab a bar of chocolate, I’m sad – a box of ice cream will cheer me up. But most of the time we aren’t hungry of food and food is totally not a solution for our problems. Rather, as you wrote, outdoors activities, a good book, chatting with good friend could fulfill our hungry souls 🙂
Lovely ideas! thank you… RBS