It’s science! This soup will help cure what ails you in Northwest winters

Chicken noodle soup is simply a classic when someone is sick. The broth is good for a sore throat and the vegetables have plenty of vitamins to give the immune system a boost. In fact, a 2000 study published in an actual medical journal said as much.

So when my boyfriend started complaining of a sore throat and stuffy nose, I came up with a challenge for myself: collect all the foods health websites recommend for a cold and use as many as possible to make a soup, without it tasting like a witch’s brew.

I told my sick boyfriend how I planned to spend my Friday night, and he seemed perfectly content to be the guinea pig for my scientific endeavor. So I wrote out a list of 48 ingredients that health experts listed on Kaiser, Web MD, Healthline, Good Housekeeping and Health. Some ingredients I expected, such as ginger and honey, but others, including hard-to-pronounce roots and coconut water, surprised me. I wanted to make sure I had a few strange ingredients for my challenge, reminiscent of the secret ingredient challenges on the TV show “Iron Chef.”

Just from eyeballing the list of ingredients, I could see lots of aromatics, including garlic, ginger, turmeric, chili peppers and onions. That’s because these ingredients have anti-inflamatory, antimicrobial and decongestant properties, according to the experts. Citrus fruits and green vegetables, packed with vitamins, also dominated the list. I saw more suggestions to use fatty fish than chicken because it’s softer to eat and is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, as well as zinc.

The dish that made the most sense to me was a play on a tom kha gai soup, a sweet and sour Thai soup with coconut milk and red curry (which is made up of garlic, lemongrass, shallot, coriander root and kaffir lime peel). I could use all those spicy and sour flavors to sneak in some bitter and sweet flavors, including a dollop of honey and drops of ginseng extract, one of the medicinal roots the experts suggested. Cubes of salmon could absorb some of the flavor once plopped into the soup.

I got straight to work, picking up all my ingredients from Tola Angkor Asian Market in Vancouver. First, I sliced half a white onion, minced three cloves of garlic, two slices of fresh ginger and two Thai chili peppers, and chopped three bunches of bok choy. Over medium heat, I added some oil (coconut is preferable) to a pot and dumped in all the items I just cut, as well as 1 teaspoon of lemongrass paste, 2 teaspoons of red curry paste and 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder.

I mixed that together for around five minutes before added 3 cups of chicken broth and 3 cups of coconut milk. Then, I turned up the heat slightly and added 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, 1 teaspoon of lime juice, 1 teaspoon of honey and a little vial of ginseng extract, which tasted sort of like an espresso liqueur. I plopped in cubes of salmon from two filets and let it sit for around 21/2 minutes. I served the soup in a bowl with some green onion sprinkled on top.

And voilà — the ultimate super soup for a cold! I was nervous for my boyfriend to try it, since the Thai chili peppers made the soup slightly spicy, but he absolutely loved it. He said the sweet, spicy and sour flavors felt good on his throat and cleared up his stuffy nose slightly. A day or two later, he was back to normal but still slurping down on leftover soup. In all, I used 14 out of 48 recommended ingredients in this soup (although I did switch out coconut water for coconut milk, but I’m still counting it because it has even more vitamins than coconut water). Not bad!

Super Soup

1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 half white onion
3 cloves garlic
1-2 Thai chili peppers
2 slices fresh ginger (about ¼ inch thick)
3 bunches of bok choy
½ teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon lemongrass paste
2 teaspoons red curry
3 cups chicken broth (or fish/vegetable)
3 cups coconut milk
1 teaspoon lime
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon honey
1 vial of ginseng extract (.34 ounces)
2 salmon filets
2 green onions

Chop white onion, garlic, Thai chili peppers, ginger and bok choy. Spoon oil into pot over medium heat and add in chopped ingredients. Mix in turmeric, lemongrass paste and red curry. Stir for five minutes or until onions are translucent. Add chicken broth and coconut milk. Stir in lime, fish sauce, honey and ginseng. Toss in cubed salmon and cook for two and a half minutes on high. Serve with green onions sprinkled on top.