Spiced Coconut Cauliflower Soup

This week, as Meg begins another seasonal cleanse with Frances Murchison of Mindfullyfed (more on this next week), I’m busy filtering my thoughts for our summer vacation. Now at the end of January, just when the drudge of winter is beginning to take its toll, the prospect of a trip on the horizon is restorative. We’ve asked Frances to share some insight from her recent trip to India….

I have just returned home from a 3 week stay in Pune, India with 15 beautiful women where I led a wellness retreat with a dear friend, that focused on body, mind, spirit.  We practiced mindfulness, meditation and yoga.  Of course, we ate deliciously spiced Indian dishes featuring cardamom, turmeric, chilies, clove, curry, garam masala.

India is a remarkable country and a sensory overload.The aromas of incense, spices and jasmine mix with the soot from burning trash, while spectacular colors litter the streets in eye catching saris, flowers, spices and flowering bougainvillea . Stray dogs roam and masses of people crowd dwellings. Shanty towns exist beside 5-star hotels and lane-less traffic jams send plumes of exhaust fumes into heavy air. As corruption seeps into the souls of faithful people, this beautiful country offers an incredible opportunity to go within.

Spirituality runs deep here. Chanting begins and ends the day, heard from every open window. It is a place where all spiritual traditions merge and co-exist peacefully. In the midst of all this, it grants us the gift of silence. Of sitting in stillness. Of allowing the mind to settle. To notice without judgment.  To be present.  In the moment.  To practice peace within the storm.  Not freedom from it.  To love what is.

Now we’re home, back to our schedules and daily rhythms.  One way to honor ourselves – body, mind and spirit, is to commit to a seasonal cleanse.  To that end, we’ve begun the mindfullyfed 10-day winter cleanse this week.  It is a way to nurture and support the liver and colon, so the body can rid itself of accumulated toxins.  We use whole foods and forgo sugar, caffeine, alcohol, processed foods, all chemicals and preservatives for 10 days.  It is way to create intentionality in our day.  When we have to contemplate and plan for our meals, our day, we practice mindfulness.  Nothing is more basic than food.  Mindful eating puts everything in perspective.  It all begins with our food.

This spiced coconut cauliflower soup is a good dish, cleanse or not, incorporating the spices Frances mentions.

If you’re considering cleansing over the next 10 days and would like to join Frances group, email:  frances@mindfullyfed.com.

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup / 1 large white onion, diced
2 tbsp curry powder * click here if you are using the Indian Dal Spice Bag
2” piece / 2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
pinch of cayenne
1 whole cauliflower, roughly chopped
4 cups chicken broth, low sodium
salt and pepper
1 can coconut milk, half fat

Heat the olive oil on a medium heat in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Saute the garlic and onions gently without browning, approximately 3 minutes.

Stir in the curry powder, grated ginger and cayenne and cauliflower and saute for a further minute.

Transfer the mixture to your slow cooker and add the chicken broth, salt and pepper.

Cook on low for 4 hours, and stir in the coconut milk 30 minutes from the end.

Once cooked, blend in the slow cooker with a stick blender and serve.

Looking Ahead
Join us next week where Meg’s cleanse ends and we begin our Heart Healthy month.

Zen Moment
“Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will); being with the unpleasant without fearing it will always be this way (which it won’t).”
– James Baraz