Spoiler alter:  this soup might just become your favorite welcome to spring winter soup favorite.  

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 follow our blog to have the posts delivered to your email

Compliance Tip:  Soup Share

Want to do the soup cleanse with 1/2 the work?  Consider a soup share.  Divide the soups and double the ingredients, package and swap with a friend or family member.

Compliance Tip: Element Wisdom Cards

Reach your Zenith

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

Spices: 

Oregano: warm, pungent

qualities: releasing, detoxifying

actions: heart protective, antiviral, anti-parasitic

affinity: HT, SI

Thyme: warm, pungent

qualities: tonifies wei qi, spleen, lung; releases exterior

actions: restorative, antiviral, anti-inflammatory

affinity: LU, ST, SP, adrenals, nerves

Whole Foods Tips:

Snap the asparagus from the bottom of the stalk to divide the tender from the woody stalk.

Store the asparagus in water  in a cup or glass in the refrigerator until ready to cook.

Toppers:

Lemon zest, peel or juice: 

qualities: sour, sweet, neutral

action: calming, clears phlegm misting the heart

affinity: LV, GB, HT, LU, ST

Self Care:

To support the heart: practice metta – loving kindness toward yourself and others

I hope you enjoy this journey!  Be creative.  Love your body with healthy foods.

xoxoxoxo Sarita

This Lentil Cilantro Soup exquisitely supports the water/winter organ pair of the Bladder and Kidney. This is the perfect soup to catch the tail end of winter in harmony food support. This pair of organs, when in balance, support our need to restore, unplug, dream and merge into higher states of consciousness.  The seeds of the year are planted during the winter, sprout during spring. come into full bloom in summer and return to the earth during fall. What have you planted this winter in the quiescence of the season?

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 follow our blog to have the posts delivered to your email

Gardening Tip:  Direct Sow Cilantro Seeds

In the south, we are able to have fresh cilantro during winter and spring simply by direct sowing every three weeks. I watch the weather and sow my seeds just before or during the rains. So sow those seeds! 

Fill your kidneys with blue-black 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.

Spices: 

Peppercorns: 

nature: hot, pungent

action: opens pores, promotes sweating, warms abdominal organs

direction: outward

affinity:  Liver, Lung & Kidney

Whole Foods Tip: Cilantro Berries

Discover the delightful in between stage from cilantro leaf to coriander seed – the amazing, little known cilantro berry.  This tender green pod pows with flavor.  I love to eat it fresh, toss in into the end cook stage of a stir fry or fancy up my salsa. 

Toppers:

Chives: 

nature: warm, pungent

action: warms coldness. supports sexual function, removes dampness

affinity: Kidneys

Pollinator Tip: Bees adore the Cilantro flowers.  Like buckwheat, they are an early source of pollen and nectar to forage. If your spice plants bolts, bee happy – don’t worry.

Self Care:

To support the kidney and its expression as the adrenal: tonify the vagal nerve to move into rest & digest mode.

How to practically soothe your nervous system and improve vagal nerve tone:

• Take a cold shower or plunge
• Splash cold water on face & neck
• Sing, laugh, chant, hum, & hug
• Restore the microbe of the gut
• Relax jaw tension
• Meditate on loving kindness
• Positive Social Connect

.

xoxoxoxo Sarita

Carrot Leek Ginger Soup Mandala

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 follow our blog to have the posts delivered to your email

The final soup in the in the nourishing winter soup cleanse is my favorite Wednesday soup.  Yup, Wednesdays are a busy day committed as a Hometown Hero to Habitat for Humanity building houses in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  That means I need a quick lunch to take in the thermos for on-site break time or a quick dinner when I come home exhausted (in a good way) after a long epsom salt soak!

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.

Several years ago, I bought a blendtec that turns chunks of vegetables and herbs into a steaming hot soup in 152 seconds.  While I love my immersion blender for the convenience that it offers by transforming my just cooked hot vegetables and stock into a delightful puree, the blendtec tops.

Compliance Tip:  Soup Share

Want to do the soup cleanse with 1/2 the work?  Consider a soup share.  Divide the soups and double the ingredients, package and swap with a friend or family member.

We are all brothers and sisters

Compliance Tip: Element Wisdom Cards

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

Spices: 

Fresh Ginger: 

nature: acrid, warm

action: releases exterior, disperses cold: stops cough, alleviates vomiting

Skin: promotes urination, reduces edema

affinity:  Lung, Spleen & Stomach

Whole Foods Tip: Peeling the carrots will sweeten the soup. Choosing not to peel the skin imparts an ever so slight hint of earth and bitter taste. This soup freezes well for single servings later on.

Toppers:

Chopped Soaked Almonds: 

nature: sweet, neutral

action: ventilates lungs, relieves cough & asthma, transforms phlegm, lubricates intestines

affinity: Lung & Large intestine

Self Care:

To support the lung and its expression as the skin: breath work and dry brushing

I hope you enjoy this journey!  Be creative.  Love your body with healthy foods.

xoxoxoxo Sarita

The winter soup cleanse as a method of preparing the body for a spring cleanse, resetting after over indulgence and a nourishing and gentle act of a self care to resent our habits. Our goal should always be to first optimize the functioning of our bodies to aid elimination when we undertake a detox.  

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 follow our blog to have the posts delivered to your email

Water is the representative element of Winter.  The Kidney Bladder organ pair and the Adrenal glands (as the endocrine extension of the Kidney) are manifestations of Water in the landscape of the human body. *Read about lifestyle practices and self-care actions to take now for best Winter health* This energy of this trio peaks during the winter season.  The nature of water is to flow.  When there is excessive cold the water freezes causing blockages. When there is excessive heat the water element becomes gas, rises to the sky (lungs) and begins a new cycle been transformed, transmuted.

The highest good is like water, it is good at benefitting the ten thousand and yet it does not contend with them. It dwells in places the multitudes detest; therefore, it is close to the dao.

~Dao De Jing

Energy in the body is in dream state during the winter.  It’s creative energies rise in the spring, blossom in the summer, being deterioration in the fall and come to quiescence in the winter.  The transitions between seasons and is the focus of our second soup in the series. *Learn more about the Doyo – Earth – Transition season here* and the Earth element rule all transitional periods.

The color associated with the Earth elements is golden yellow and the taste is sweet. To Further direct the golden winter squash on this soup toward the Earth element trio, concentrate your efforts on spicing and topping to enhance the power of the soup. Winter squash and pumpkin are detoxifying and cooling in nature thereby quenching thirst, relieving irritability and alleviate skin lesions. Additionally they all leech dampness remedying edema and difficult urination.

Whole Foods Cooking Hack:

Cook your winter squash and pumpkins whole!!  This is by far the easiest method to process these hard shelled beauties.  Preheat the oven to 425.  Place whole gourd on baking sheet, pierce with ice pick or sharp knife and cook 60-90 minutes. Let cool.  While still warm, peel the skin, slice and scoop out the seeds then the flesh. Honestly, this method is super easy and will become your favorite way to cook the golden gourds ~ well unless you still enjoy the struggle. Which is also fine.

Spices: 

Cardamom: (read more about Cardamom here)

nature: warm, pungent

action: ‘wakes’ the spleen, removes dampness, promotes circulation of qi and warm these organs, stops vomiting

affinity:  Kidney, Spleen & Stomach

Cinnamon:

nature: hot, pungent, sweet

action: warms any coldness in the body, fortifies yang, unblocks channels, stops pain, generates qi and blood

affinity: Kidney, Spleen, Liver, Heart

Toppers:

Miso (chickpea or soybean) ring: 

As a salt substitute and probiotic drizzle a ring around the edge of the bowl to benefit the spleen and the large intestine. Reduce a spoonful of paste in warm water to liquid consistency.

Walnuts: crush and sprinkle (raw or toasted) to benefit the spleen and kidney and add a dose of omega 3 fatty acids.

Flax:

nature: neutral, sweet

action: laxative, relieves pain and inflammation

affinity:  Spleen, pancreas, large intestine

Self Care:

To support the spleen and stomach: visualize golden light filling your stomach, spleen and pancreas.

Consider 5 minutes of qi gong to loosen the muscles and get the qi circulating.

I hope you enjoy this journey!  Be creative.  Love your body with healthy foods.

xoxoxoxo Sarita

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 follow our blog to have the posts delivered to your email

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.  This and upcoming posts provide organ specific self care suggestions as well as spices and toppers to add to each soup to power up the effect of each vegetable combination. 

The winter soup cleanse as a method of preparing the body for a spring cleanse, resetting after over indulgence and a nourishing and gentle act of a self care to resent our habits. Our goal should always be to first optimize the functioning of our bodies to aid elimination when we undertake a detox.  

One of the most important and frequently overlooked areas of a cleanse or detox is to prepare the body to efficiently clear the toxins that are stored in the body. We eliminate waste via our

• lungs via carbon dioxide gas
• large intestine via feces
• skin via sweat
• liver via detoxification pathways
• bladder via urination

The first soup in the winter nourishing soup cleanse series focuses on the elemental metal pair of organs: the lung and large intestine. The onion/garlic base is a pre-biotic with their long fibrous strands of fructooligiosacchrides and insulin that feed the microbiome. Onions are warm in nature, promote sweating, resolve phlegm and act as a diuretic. Do you notice how many of the avenues of elimination just onions hit? Garlic is hot in nature was recognized as an antibiotic long before the advent of pharmaceuticals. In fact, it was a standard item in military ration kits through the ages. It also has anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-helminth properties. If onions and garlic aren’t your thing, visit our post on soup stock variations. If onions and garlic aren’t your thing, visit our post on soup stock variations.

Beyond the base: concentrate your efforts on spicing and topping to enhance the power of the soups.

Spices: 

Black & White Pepper: 

nature: hot, pungent

action: warms internal organs, eliminates phlegm

direction: downward

affinity:  Large Intestine & Stomach

Nutmeg:

nature: warm, pungent

action: warms internal organs, eliminates phlegm

direction: downward

affinity: Large Intestine & Spleen

Toppers:

Avocado: 

nature: sweet, cool

action: moistens lungs, intestines, skin

affinity: lung and large intestine

Self Care:

To support the large intestine add abdominal massage.

To support the lung add breath work and  dry brushing

I hope you enjoy this journey!  Be creative.  Love your body with healthy foods.

xoxoxoxo Sarita

The soup cleanse is developed with simplicity in mind.  However, onion and garlic base may not be the best fit for everyone or we might tire of the same flavor or feel creative. A percent of people are sulfur intolerant; in these cases, I suggest a simple vegetable stock or herbal tea.  

My favorite long game way to create vegetable stock is to consistently contribute all the trimmings from my organic vegetable meal prep into a collective freeze.  I save all the heads, tails, skins, peels, cores from vegetables and fruits that cross my cutting board and add them bit by bit to a collective in the freezer.  When needed, I simply add the fresh and frozen scraps with chosen whole spices to very clean water and simmer on medium-low with lid on for 10-15 minutes once the stock has come to a gentle boil.  

A short game to create a quick soup base is brewing or warming herbal tea.  My winter favorite quick tea bases are ginger, chai and green tea.  Over the years, my tea ritual has evolved to almost exclusively bulk teas.  The quality of the herbs are superior and the cost overall less when we re-brew the leaves.  As long as there is color in the second or third or fourth ‘washing’ of the leaves, there are powerful antioxidants and phytonutrients.  The additional benefit is that it naturally decaffeinates the teas by water processing.

Herbal teas deliver botanical medicine.  

Vervain Collective Tranquilium Tea by Oracle

To free the medicine, we choose the best preparation method, temperature, and timing.  Boil or steep the herbs multiple times until there is little color left.  Combine all brews into one large container and drink room temperature or cool from the refrigerator throughout the day or over the next few days. For more information about tea preparation visit our previous post Brewing Teas: free their medicine.

There are just a few basic ‘rulz’ and a lot of room for making it your own.  In my practice, I have learned that co-creating plans supports your wellness journey.

1. No Grazing. Allow 4 to 5 hours between each meal.  This allows the nerve complex known as the migrating motor complex to move food out of our stomachs through the small intestine, optimizing nutrient absorption, maximizing digestive power while sweeping misplaced bacteria into the colon for elimination.  The MMC starts two hours after eating. Snacking between meals slows or stops the digestive process.

2. Fermented Foods. Add one to two servings of non dairy fermented foods daily. I suggest 1-2 oz of kombucha, raw sauerkraut, miso soup, kim chee, etc

3. Whole Foods. You may choose to add these soups once or twice daily to a whole foods diet free of process and refined foods.  Another option is start the day with vegetable or bone broth or miso soup, a mid day meal of in season greens sautéed in coconut or olive oil sprinkled with seeds or nuts and evening soup. You may choose to rest the digestive system further with a week of ‘smashed, mashed, pureed, broths and teas’ or intermittent fasting. Make it work for you.

4. Water and Herbal Tea. Drink ½ your body weight in clean water daily including a cup or two of your favorite detox or calm tea and supplemental mineral water or drops. During winter I always cycle back around to calming and adaptagenic teas ~ watch for our upcoming post: Teas: Adapt & Calm to dive deeper. This is the time to shop local and buy from  your peeps.

5. Grocery Lists. I’m not a fan of grocery lists.  We live in a time in which all fruits and vegetables from all parts of the globe are in season all the time in our commercial grocery stores or can be shipped to our door. I’m inviting you to shop your local farmer’s market, harvest your yard.  Absolutely whenever possible buy organic – it’s richer in minerals and free from pesticides and chemicals.  No spray is also a better choice.  Fresh is better and frozen is still good. Really look at the produce when you are shopping. Which produce looks the healthiest? the most vital?  the most alive? Choose that one.  If one or two of the vegetables from the soup cleanse ingredient list is not available – skip it. 

6. Soup Share. Consider recruiting a friend or family member to parnter with during the cleanse week.  You all could each prepare 1/2 of the soups and together you have the whole with 1/2 the work.  Check in daily. Genius!!
7. Add One. Subtract Three. Add one external element of support.  In addition to one form of circulation/movement daily ~ dance time, qi gong shaking, yoga, stretching, walks, sauna, therapeutic bathing ~ add support like our Element Wisdom Water Deck or your favorite pod cast or inspirational.  Subtract three sources of overstimulation:  social media, radio, news, TV, netflix, all technology after sunset, etc

The seasonal return to the Earth element invites simple methods of food preparation that allow more time for self-love and beloveds.  Golden and earth toned foods like millet, corn, amaranth, rice, garbanzo, golden split mung and soy beans, hazelnuts, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, yams, squash, carrots, apricots, and cantaloupe are harmonizing choices.  All root vegetables strengthen our internal Earth.  

Sweet potatoes harmonize during Earth season.

Keep spices, seasonings and flavors mild during these days of transition and keep food temperatures not too hot and not too cold (raw or chilled) ~ honoring the middle way. Simplify cooking and digestion with soups, purees and medium temperature baking during the doyo, or the return to Earth three week period between the seasons.  Soaking and pressure cooking all legumes and grains renders them more digestible as it denatures the lectins, the carbohydrate binding proteins which can damage the lining of our intestines and disrupt digestion if our enzyme pathways are confused or not functioning properly. 

Even in a tiny house, two kitchen gizmos are absolutely worth their weight and shelf space:  an instapot and a good blender ~ a Blendtec or Vitamix are premier if in your budget.  These appliances transform whole foods into meals in minutes. I often create a soup with ginger, carrots (sometimes cashews), and filtered water in 152 seconds in my Blendtec . Yes, from raw ingredients to warm soup in way under three minutes!

This week consider:

a four day vegetable fast,

eating from earthenware (non toxic),

a soup cleanse,

walking barefoot on the earth,

regular eating times.

Walk barefoot during Earth season.

My patients enjoy this mini cleanse that journeys through the entire organ network in seven soups.  I hope you enjoy it too!

Soups:

Lu/Li    Lung/Large Intestine   Cauliflower / Cabbage

St/Sp     Stomach/Spleen   Butternut Squash        

Ht/SI     Heart/Small Intestine   Asparagus/ Turnip      

Bl/Kd    Bladder/Kidney   Lentil/ Cilantro          

Pc/ Tb   Pericardium/Triple Burner   Kale/ spinach/ chard    

Gb/Lv   Gallbladder/Liver   Beet/ Parsnip            

Lu/Li    Lung/Large Intestine   Carrot/ Leek /Ginger    

Cook up one of more of these mini-cleanse veggie soups in a base of vegetable stock or onion, garlic, and salt.  For two servings: combine 1 medium onion, 2-5 cloves garlic, salt to taste in 1 quart of filtered water.  Simmer until onions are not quite clear. Cook on low to medium heat until chopped vegetables are fork tender. Blend with immersion blender, Vitamix, or Blendtec. Add a little olive oil if desired. Best salt sources these days:  Great Salt Lake or the Dead Sea, due to the plastics in our oceans.

To southern cooks, onion, celery, pepper, and garlic constitute the four seasons. Try out a four seasons base as an easy vegetable stock. Some folks do not do well with the nightshade family of vegetables, including peppers (genus Solanaceae) due to their alkaloid content so best for y’all to stick to a ‘mirepoix’. Mirepoix is a 2:1:1 combination of onion, celery, and carrot that is popular in French cuisine. Other folks do not tolerate sulfur foods, like onions and garlic (genus Allium) so simply use a filtered water base. Organic boxed vegetable stocks can be reduced with water for convenience. If you discover a delicious combination, leave us a comment or send us a message.  We will be sure to pass it on.

Optional Earth supporting spices like cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, Chinese five spice, coriander, cumin, turmeric, rosemary, fresh parsley or basil, caraway, and fennel seed may be added for mild complement. Add dried herbs in at the start of preparation; add fresh herbs toward the end. Be creative and enjoy!

Cultivating the Earth element in our surroundings is also a method of balancing and rectifying the energies of the season.  To engender the Earth and provide a grounding entry, we painted our front door at  Alberta Orchard Wellness with a color match to Alabama red clay. We love it! We also left the kiwi arbor in primer tone to temper the metal in the southeast corner of the office. 

Our upcoming project at the tiny house is to apply a natural earth plaster as an interior wall treatment with southwestern clay and crushed Gulf Coast shells. This beautiful and natural clay plaster is not only nontoxic but it is an environmentally conscious product manufactured in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Keep an eye on this space for updates and photographs. But in the meantime, check out the company that makes and sells this earth friendly product that is sure to enrich and beautify our space.

Feng shui bagua, an energy map.

The center of the house represents the Earth according to Feng Shui. The art of placement in ancient China, Feng Shui encourages the flow of Qi in your homes, gardens, and offices. What is in the center of your home, your bedroom, your office, your dining table?  A simplistic fix is to place a pottery vessel centrally, empty or filled with earth from a place that brings you tranquility (beach, mountains, forest, sacred space) or to decorate or accent with earthen and gold tones.  A more complex undertaking would be installing terracotta on the floor or plastering the walls with earthen clay in an area of the home that needs a stronger Earth element to bring balance.  Another Feng Shui tip is to fill a ginger jar with soil from a property with abundance and place it in the wealth corner of your home or office.  Several years ago, I collected soil from a prosperous friend’s rose garden and placed it in the wealth corner of Alberta Orchard Wellness upon opening.  We have experienced an abundance of blessings, for sure.  It may be the Feng Shui or it may be the integrity, perseverance, open mind, grateful heart and good vibrations around here responsible for our success.  Either way, we’ll take it and pass it on!