One of my precious friends is gearing up for her fourth birth! Her midwives recommend a post-labor soup with Sweet Potato & Kale specifically for healing but she wasn’t into the recipe she had last time. I volunteered to make her one for this go round, which is a pretty hefty task. I mean, after such an INCREDIBLE experience of giving birth and bringing new life into the world, I really wanted to be sure this would be amazing for her. Postpartum nourishment is everything. The way we take care of ourselves every day matters but after surgeries, birth, trauma, etc. a focus on nutrition and healing foods should be emphasized. It made a world of difference after my 3rd birth and my 2nd breast surgery when I focused on healing foods and rest in comparison with how I felt the other times I didn’t plan or place a focus on that aspect of my nutrition.
I think my friend going to be one happy, nourished Mama with this soup. She’s got TWO Stasher bags of soup and I sent her with one jar of the soup to try the day that I gave it to her. (Couldn’t have her getting to labor and being sad with sad soup.
It’s an absolute honor to me to be able to love on or encourage Mamas at any stage of pregnancy & childbirth! One thing that can easily get overlooked is the nutrition needed after birth and into the fourth trimester. Our bodies do INSANE work to create and sustain the life of our child, and so we really need to take care of ourselves afterward. I wanted to make my friend a Sweet Potato – Kale soup with incredible nutrition and lots of anti-inflammatory properties. Here is a bit of the nutrition found in the ingredients of this soup:
Organic Homemade Chicken Broth – Collagen and protein rich, aids in digestion and overall healing.
Sweet Potato – High in A, B, C, D vitamins, calcium, iron, potassium and zinc, to name a few.
Kale – High in Vitamin A, K, B6 and C, Calcium, Potassium, Copper and Manganese.
Turmeric, Ginger, Garlic, and Cinnamon are all anti-inflammatory and medicinal.
- 1 small sweet Onion (chopped)
- 3-4 stalks Celery (chopped)
- 1 bunch of Lacinto Kale
- 5 cups Organic Bone Broth
- 2 large Sweet Potatoes
- 3 Garlic Cloves (minced)
- 1tsp Fresh Ginger (minced)
- 1/2tsp Turmeric
- 1/2tsp Thyme
- 1/2tsp Pink Salt & 1/2t Pink Salt
- 1/2tsp Cinnamon
- 1/4tsp Black Pepper
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 3Tbs Avocado Oil (separated)
- Coconut Cream
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Heat 2TBs Avocado Oil in your pot over medium heat. Add in Onion and Celery + 1/2tsp Pink Salt for 4 minutes or until translucent. Add in the fresh Ginger, Garlic, Turmeric, Thyme and Black Pepper to cook until fragrant (1-2 minutes). At this point, you can add in all of your broth and Bay leaf to bring to a nice simmer.
Chop Sweet Potato into medium size chunks and toss with remaining 1Tbs Avocado Oil, 1/2tsp Pink salt and 1/2tsp Cinnamon. Spread onto a parchment lined sheet pan and roast in your oven for 15 minutes. (see **NOTES at the bottom if you plan to freeze your soup)
After 15 minutes of soup simmering and sweet potato roasting, add chopped kale and sweet potato to your soup pot to simmer an additional 3 minutes. Remove your bay leaf. Add 1/3 cup Coconut Cream to your pot OR 2Tbs per individual bowl.
ENJOY!
**NOTES to freeze:
-If you’re freezing your soup to eat later, undercook your Sweet Potato slightly. I cut pieces into larger chunks and only roasted 10-12 minutes. I let the soup cool, as well as the sweet potato, before putting into my stasher bags to go into the freezer.
-Stasher bags are ideal because you can heat the soup IN the stasher bag itself which means less dishes and less mess!
-If you’re freezing your soup, do NOT add the coconut cream to your pot. Instead, simply add 2Tbs per bowl of soup individually to eat right away and freeze the rest without the coconut cream added.
