What can I say, I’m on a bit of a soup kick this winter. As a matter of fact I have a pot of Tom Kha Gai soup simmering away as I type this.
What about soup for breakfast?
While not so common here, there are many cultures that start their day with a warm bowl of nourishing soup. My friend Minga offers this breakfast soup recipe featuring highly nutritious chicken broth and eggs. Eggs have gotten a bad rap over the years. I consider them to be a health food and eat eggs almost every day. Eggs provide high quality proteins, vitamins, nutrients, minerals and good fats.
From Minga:
Growing up in Thailand most of our breakfasts were savory. Often we would have noodle soups, rice soups, meats, veggies and eggs of all kinds to nourish us deeply for a day of activity. Personally, a day without eggs is akin to a day without water. We eat eggs every day unless there is a crisis and we can’t get local farmers’ eggs with golden yolks.
This is one of the soups we love to have in the morning designed after congee, but without the starchy rice component. The recipe below is for 2 people. Feel free to double it or triple it depending on your family size. Red Boat fish sauce is a must in this dish to make it taste really Thai. It’s the only fish sauce I have found without sugar in it.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of Thai chicken broth with some of the meat returned to the broth
- 5 eggs
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- salt to taste
Garnish possibilities:
- julienned ginger
- chopped cilantro
- chopped green onion
- dried shrimp
- fried garlic
Directions:
- Heat broth and chicken in pot at a medium heat until lightly boiling. While the broth is heating, blend the eggs in a bowl with a hand blender or mix with a blender.
- Pour the mixed eggs into the broth slowly while stirring. Turn the heat to low and cook for 2 or 3 minutes. Add fish sauce and salt to taste.
- Serve in portion sized bowls and garnish to taste!
- Enjoy!
Thanks to Metta River for use of this recipe and photo. Visit Shawn and Minga’s website for more yummy and healthy recipes, and news on their upcoming workshops.
Shawn Kinsella is a Certified Nutritional Therapist and Licensed Massage Therapist here in Portland. He uses evidence-based nutritional counseling to create a personalized nutrition program that helps restore balance, harmony and vitality to your body.
Minga Lily is an integrative therapist fusing traditional Thai medicine, energy assessment, yogic exercises and dialogue addressing the psyche. She assists her clients in developing ongoing self-care practices to alleviate pain, restore balance and encourage optimal health. Minga enjoys working with clients of all ages who are motivated to maintain self-care routines that sustain and enhance the work she does with them.
Learn more about Shawn and Minga at www.mettariver.com
