Bacon? Yep, I said bacon. Bacon in moderation won’t ruin your health, especially if you buy organic nitrate free fresh from the Farmer’s market. It adds so much taste and unexpected crunch to the soup you’ll be glad you got over your fear of saturated fat. So here we go:
Preheat oven to 400. Place a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet. Line the cooling rack with the bacon and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes until...
until the bacon is crispy.
Take the bacon off the cooling rack and place on paper towels to drain any excess moisture.
Chop it up and set aside.
Pour the leftover bacon grease from the baking sheet into a container and save it for later. We will be using it in this recipe but it’s also a great cooking oil (I love to fry my eggs in bacon grease but I’ll save that recipe for another post).
Now turn down the heat on the oven to 350. Cut up the vegetable into 1-2 inch pieces and place on the same baking sheet that you baked the bacon in. Season the veggies with salt, pepper, and rosemary. The baking sheet will already be greased with yummy flavorful bacon grease so don’t clean it until you are completely done making this soup.
Bake the veggies at 350 for 45 minutes or until tender and golden.
Place the veggies into a blender and add 2 cups of chicken bone broth. Blend on high until smooth. Add 1 - 2 more cups of broth until desired consistency is achieved.
The soup isn’t complete until you top it off with warmed mustard sauce so please don’t skimp out on this step. Heat a small frying pan on medium low heat. Add 1 tablespoon of bacon grease, 1 tablespoon of mustard, salt, pepper and rosemary. Whisk until well combined.
Using a spoon, drizzle the sauce over the soup. Garnish with chopped bacon, fresh parsley and chives.
Oh yeah, this is so delicious. Try it and let me know what you think. Enjoy!
With a vast drop in temperature, darker skies and rainy days, winter is the most yin of all the seasons. It is associated with the kidney and bladder organs, the color black, the element water, the emotion fear, and salty and bitter flavors.
Goji berries are one of the most well known Chinese herbs in the US. Used for over 2000 years in China, they were first mentioned in the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, the oldest known book on Chinese herbs in 200 BC. They are prized for their ability to tonify blood and yin without causing stagnation. Consumed daily in China as a food and herbal medicine, goji berries are revered for their anti-aging properties. They are used in many beauty tonics.
