10 Spices That Heal: Cancer, Diabetes, and More. Wow, cumin, ginger, basil, garlic, rosemary, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, tumeric, thyme, sounds like the spice mix I use in my soups.. I wrote in Sunday’s post that I love making soups and sometimes make more than one a day. I used to cook big giant pots of soup, since that was how I recall my grandmother doing it. Then I’d eat the soup at every meal for a week or more. It only just in the last few years occurred to me to make small mini-soups instead. That way I get the pleasure of choosing and chopping and cooking more often, and make just small one-pint or one-quart soups. I enjoy cooking now that my diet consists of mostly fresh vegetables. I enjoy finding new flavor combinations, especially in soups. Like Sunday, if I think about it (or glance at my daily food journal), I really ate all day long. Of course, I was eating salads and watery soups, but it was basically a day of fun food preparation and feasting. They just weren’t heavy or fatty foods. Also, I figure it’s healthier to spend half of my kitchen time in food prep rather than in eating, since I’ll spend the same amount of time doing it, no matter what.
Yesterday’s soup was a carrot, onion and fresh green bean stew, which also included celery, fresh garlic, one sweet potato, a can of fire roasted tomatoes, a cup of lowfat beef broth and a tablespoon each dried basil, rosemary, tarragon, cumin, oregano, thyme, cinnamon, 3 bay leaves. Yes, a tablespoon each and yes, 3 bay leaves. I’ve done that soup before using beef as well, browning stew meat then tossing vegetables on top, then the tomatoes and broth, simmering for 2 hours. I’ve even used smoked ham hocks in this soup. A smoked turkey leg has less fat and calories and almost as much smokey, meaty flavor as smoked ham. These days though, I usually make it without meat but using lowfat beef or chicken stock.
Someone the other day mentioned curry and my automatic response was, “I don’t like curry.” They asked what I don’t like about it, and I said, “the flavor.” They asked, “What kind of curry was it? What combination of spices did you not like?” I didn’t know the answer to any of those questions. I just knew that once when I was 24, my brother was eating something and I said “I want a taste” and I didn’t like it and asked what it was. He said it was curry and he loved it. So, from then on, I just figured I didn’t like curry. Isn’t that ridiculous?
I’ve turned into a bit of a foodie the last few years since I cut way back on heavy, fatty and processed foods. I did it as a health move. I want this body to last me another 60 years. So I spend time glancing at recipes and learning about new spices. I came across a line that said that curry powder is like chili powder, in that everyone has their own spice combination preferences. I didn’t know that. I thought it was a single spice for the chili powder. I thought it was a single spice for the curry powder. Now I realize it is like the Indian garam masala – just a preferred palette of favorite spices. Like what I use for many of my soups.
My spice palette, my garam masala or curry powder consists of equal parts dried basil, rosemary, tarragon, cumin, oregano, thyme, cinnamon, 3 bay leaves. An equal part garlic powder as well, not garlic salt, if I am not using fresh garlic. I found out that a curry can be any highly spiced dish of vegetables and/or meats. In that case, I’d been a fan of curry all my life. Yet I held this belief in my mind that I didn’t like curry. So through all the years eating in one amazing Indian and Asian restaurant after another, I denied myself tasting some amazing curries. Because the voice in my head repeated the familiar line, “I don’t like curry.”
So I wonder today what other really neat things I have denied myself through the years, because I have a picture of me as someone who didn’t like that or didn’t do that, hastily based upon one fleeting incident.
We’ll see.
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