Dairy free, healthy fat, apple cider vinegar, cabbage and quinoa soup - a.k.a. Horseshoe Soup

Horseshoe Soup-

In honour of the Little' Miss's super-skeptical first query over quinoa...which I've likely shared before because it made me laugh deeply when she said it.

"What are these little [stir-stir-poke] horseshoe...thingy-s???"


It was a very quick lunch, because of the Thermomix, but the reason I'm sharing the recipe is because it's dairy free, low calorie, highly nutritious, and anti-inflammatory.  Also, with the Vitamixes being in Costco, more people have them making soup even easier than before self-stirring, chopping, heating machines came into kitchens.

Horseshoe Soup

However your machine works: begin heating 1-2 tbsp olive oil

Onto a running blade for a very few seconds drop the following:
3 medium shallots 
3 heads of garlic
1-2 peeled or scrubbed carrots, in three rough cuts

Return machine to stir, and keep it heating as high as it will go...and add 1-2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Add the spices as you like: turmeric, dill, pepper, cumin, ginger (I like lots of each, because they're anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidant, but most importantly, they're very pro-flavour)

Add the coleslaw mix...remembering that it shrinks a great deal as it cooks

Add 1/4 - 1/2 a cup of quinoa (colourful if you have it, but that it hard to find here...but easy to find in South America, so I include it for anyone there who decides to cook this up) I think it would look most appealing with the black or red quinoa-

Add plain almond milk (@ a mere 30 calories per 250 ml, or 1 cup) until it's about an 2 inches or 5cm below the level of the coleslaw.

Cook it for about 35-40 mins, and by then you should have a beautifully golden, creamy soup ready for lunch, or dinner...

Alternative versions - but you'll have to rename them!

Wild edition: cook for 60 minutes, using wild rice... which will be done and curled into itself when it's ready to eat.

Dinner version: brown some ground turkey or chopped chicken and consider adding sage or thyme.

Mixed-bag version: cook for 60 minutes, using a mix of brown rices (except black, or black jasmine- unless you like purple cream soup)

Cheers and chao!