Immune-Boosting Foods for Winter

Immune-Boosting Foods for Winter

There’s nothing worse than a winter flu or stuffy head cold. So if you want to build your body’s immune system to be ready to fight the cold weather nasties, now is the time to be loading up on high antioxidant foods.

A daily dose of garlic or ginger can provide a handy defence to winter ills, while high antioxidant herbs and spices can boost your body’s immunity while adding flavour to food. The makers of Gourmet Garden, have turned classic winter weekday recipes into great immune-boosting meals by simply adding herbs in a tube to spice up not only the flavours, but also the nutritional value.

Your cold and flu arsenal for winters can also be boosted by adding other immune-boosting foods like sweet potatoes, mushrooms (particularly shitake), nuts including almonds, low fat yoghurt and lean beef to your favourite recipes.

There’s nothing like a healthy winter soup to warm yourself and your soul, so Gourmet Garden has developed some big flavour, antioxidant rich soups to help you ride out the winter months flu-free.

Butternut Pumpkin Soup is perfect for weekday nights, not only being delicious but simple and easy to prepare. Simply dice pumpkin, add hot chicken stock to pumpkin and stir. Mix through ½ teaspoon each of Gourmet Garden Garlic and Coriander (1 teaspoon of Gourmet Garden Chilli is optional) and allow to simmer. Once all the ingredients are softened simply put through a blender and serve with a dollop of yoghurt and a sprinkling of freshly ground pepper.

Chicken soup has long been regarded as one of the prize cold and flu fighting meals. If you are looking for a complete meal in your soup, try Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup. Simply cook chicken in a wok with Gourmet Garden Garlic, then add a combination of stock, water, carrots, cabbage, soy sauce, asparagus and Gourmet Garden Ginger to the pan. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer until asparagus is tender. Add noodles and simmer for a further three minutes.

Another great soup which is like a meal in itself also is Minestrone Soup. Start by cooking chopped onion, Gourmet Garden Garlic and tomato paste; then add three cups tomato pasta sauce, two cups vegetable stock and two cups water and bring to the boil. Add diced zucchini, celery, carrot and yellow squash and a 400g can of drained borlotti beans. Simmer for 15 minutes, then add half a cup of macaroni pasta and simmer again until pasta is tender. Season with salt and pepper and add one tablespoon of Gourmet Garden Oregano and two teaspoons of Gourmet Garden Basil.

Another dish to pack a powerful immune-boosting punch is Gingered Vegetable Soup. Cook onion until brown then add small chunks of carrot, potato and pumpkin and/or sweet potato and chicken or vegetable stock. Cook until tender, then add cubed red capsicum, Gourmet Garden Garlic and Ginger. For added spice add Gourmet Garden Chilli and Coriander.

Complete your immune-boosting meal with a cup of green or black tea and a few pieces of dark chocolate and you could be well on your way to a healthy winter. For other great soup recipes and meal ideas visit www.gourmetgarden.com