The Beet Parsnip Soup supports the wood/spring organ pair of the Liver and Gallbladder. This is the perfect soup to gently detox these organs. This pair of organs, when in balance, support our growth and creativity. It is essential to assure that these organs are not constrained during the spring season. Otherwise, we are likely to experience increased irritability and even outbursts of anger.  So dance, paint, play music, write poetry, garden and generally express yourself and create.  This is the season of action – making your dreams of winter your reality.

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Fill your gallbladder with vibrant green light

Compliance Tip: Element Wisdom Cards

Choose an Element Wisdom Card each day to support the organ systems, seasonal harmony or your constitution. These unique messages support your seasonal health & elemental constitution as determined by your 5 element practitioner or our Seasonal Medicine Element Quiz.

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Spices: 

Peppercorns: 

nature: hot, pungent

action: opens pores, promotes sweating, warms abdominal organs

direction: outward

affinity:  Liver, Lung & Kidney

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Whole Foods Tip: Sprouts/microgreens

Sprouts and microgreens are easy to grow and easy to digest gaining them superfood status.  You can literally taste their vitality and nutritional density.  I love to eat them fresh, toss in into the end cook stage of a stir fry, layered into a sandwich or atop or replacing salad greens.

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Toppers:

Sprouts of all kinds:

nature: cool

action: specific to type of sprout

affinity: Liver, Gallbladder, and specific to the type of sprout

Citrus Peel: Lemon, Lime Zest

nature: cool and sour

action: supplements body fluids, benefits Liver, regulates Qi

affinity: Liver, Stomach

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Whole Foods Tip:  How to Sprout

Visit our previous spring Cultivating Wellness blog post How to sprout food and eat your dandelions to learn how to sprout. 

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The soups can be created and enjoyed in any order.  However, the order of the soups as presented journeys you through the 12 organ network in order of energetic flow.  One or two may even become your favorite go to soups throughout the year. The first and last vegetable combinations concentrate on the Metal element organs: large intestine and lung respectively.

All Nourishing Winter Soup Cleanse recipes can be found  a few posts back (click here).

Wanna dive deeper into the cleanse with spices, soup toppers and self-care actions?  Check back in for our upcoming posts or search our Cultivating Wellness blog for key words now.

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Self Care:

To support the liver and gently detox your liver, apply a Castor Oil Pack.  As I like to say, messy but worth it.  Castor Oil Packs were the number one treatment prescribed by Edgar Cayce and a favorite prescription of Naturopathic Doctors and nature cure practitioners everywhere due to it’s gentle yet powerful action on optimizing the natural function of the liver and gallbladder.  The liver is responsible for a multiplicity of functions in the body including detoxifying medicines, bacteria and other harmful substances – including environmental toxins;  transforming cholesterol to carry fats through the body; synthesizing proteins for blood plasma as well as bile for supporting digestion; storing and releasing glucose; processing  hormones, bilirubin and hemoglobin; regulating blood clotting; producing lymph for immune support. To learn how, click to take you to our Castor Oil & Gentle Liver Cleanse blog post.