Miso Ginger Kale Soup

Susan | January 9, 2014

Miso Ginger Kale Soup @Rawmazing.com

I am often asked, “How do you stay raw in the winter”. The simple answer is I don’t. I don’t worry about being 100% raw at any time of the year. In the summer I will go for weeks without eating any cooked food but not because I have set expectations that I have to be 100% raw. It’s because I enjoy the bounty of what nature has provided. In the winter, I usually stay high raw until dinner time. Even in the winter, too much cooked food weighs me down. But once I am ready to relax for the evening, I have no problem making a wonderful plant based (vegan) whole food (just what it says, no processed junk) meal. This Ginger Kale Miso soup is one of my favorite transitional winter dinners. Let me tell you why.

Kale is a nutritional power house. I love it and I eat a lot of it. But did you know that if you cook kale, the vitamin K increases by a huge amount? At the same time, you decrease the amount of vitamin C and probably destroy some phytonutrients and enzymes in the process. Its a bit the same with most cooked veggies. Some nutrients become more bio-available while others dramatically decrease. What’s the answer? For me, I love throwing cooked and raw in a dish together! That way I get the best of both worlds. It’s an easy solution.

This soup is loaded with goodies. Miso is a fermented soy paste that is packed with nutrients such as antioxidants, minerals, phytonutrients, fiber and protein. I suggest that you use a very high quality, organic (non-gmo) miso paste. If you don’t want to eat soy, you can find miso made from other things such as brown rice. A great article on miso can be found here: Miso.

I cook some of the kale and carrots and save out the rest to throw in after the soup has been removed from the heat. That way you get the cooked kale along with the fresh kale! Make sure you wait to add the miso until after the cooling period as you don’t want to destroy the wonderful health benefits.

I hope you love this soup as much as I do. It is a staple in my house in the winter and with the additional ginger, is a great way to chase off the cold and satisfy that need for a warm meal on a cold night.

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Miso Ginger Kale Soup

Serves 4

Soup

6 cups water
1 medium bunch kale, de-stemmed and torn into bite size pieces, divided
1 cup sliced carrots, divided
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1/2 cup yellow miso
1 medium leek, sliced fine (white part only)
fresh ground pepper

Place water, half the kale, half the carrots, and the ginger in a pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove from heat, let cool for 10 minutes.
Stir in the miso, remaining kale, carrots and the leeks. Make sure you stir well enough so the miso is completely dissolved.

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Silvia wrote on January 11, 2014

Hi Susan!
Thanks for the great recipe! It might not be raw, but it is extremely healthy, which, to me, is just as good!
I happened to meet Carol Alt about 10 years ago or so, when she was a guest speaker at Whole Foods Market in Ridgewood, NJ. Someone asked her if she only ate raw food and she said her diet was about 75% raw. I was surprised because I thought if someone said they ate a raw diet, that meant 100% raw, but it doesn’t have to be. She said as long as it’s mostly raw, you can still consider it a raw diet. So learning that it didn’t have to mean 100% raw actually encouraged me to eat more raw food. I also don’t think she is a vegetarian. If I remember correctly, I think she said she eats (at that time) some grass-fed, organic, (whatever you call the version of the healthiest) meat or fish occasionally. That part I didn’t understand or agree with, but everyone is different and we all have to do what is best for ourselves. The most important thing is eating healthy and I don’t think that just because something isn’t raw that it isn’t healthy. Like you said, there are some foods that are more nutritious when cooked. Another example that I learned on the Dr. Oz show was that cooked tomatoes have a much greater amount of lycopene than raw tomatoes.
Sorry for the long post, but I’m hoping it will help someone to not be so hard on themselves if they don’t follow the “perfect” diet.
Take care,
Silvia

Christina wrote on January 11, 2014

I add a strip of Wakame with the water to make a tasty and nutritious broth base for miso soup.

watzzupsport wrote on January 10, 2014

Hey Susan,

We have been doing a lot of testing and experimenting lately as to what you can create as a raw food but still be within the “definition” of raw food when it is heated.

I find this a lot when I look through various forums and other content producers is the ad nauseum verbatim stricture of the dreaded 48c death of goodness in a food.

As allways another great contribution from you to keeping the Raw Food message real.

Regards Russell

Brittany wrote on January 10, 2014

I’m typing this as I’m devouring this soup. Absolutely awesome. It would be a great weeknight soup to make after a cold run outside. Thank you for the recipe!