Chelle's Immune Building Chicken Tomato Basil Soup

Need a quick boost to your immune system? This soup might do just the trick. I chose each ingredient based on its immune boosting properties. It is easy to make, because I am no Betty Crocker. Since I developed this recipe, we have gone gluten free. The only ingredient here that needed to be adjusted was the cream of chicken. Thankfully, there are great recipes for gluten free cream of chicken all over the web, and they are cheaper than buying it in a can (and not too complicated). I really like this one.

Ingredients

1/2 pound Chicken
2-3 cans Rold Gold's tomato with basil (tomatoes are a natural antibiotic)
1 small can tomato sauce
1/2 large onion chopped (immune builder)
1 can cream chicken
1 tsp Minced fresh garlic (immune builder)
1-2 tsp Minced fresh ginger (immune builder)
1 small can mushrooms or 1/2 cup chopped fresh mushrooms (immune builder)
salt and pepper to taste

Boil chicken, chop it, keep 3-4 cups of the water, Add all other ingredients. Simmer in crock pot for at least 2 hours (or all day). I like to add white rice to the individual bowls to make a very filling meal.

Every ingredient in this soup benefits your immune system. Chicken has an amino acid called cysteine that helps break up congestion when it is boiled. Cysteine is the reason there is chicken in chicken noodle soup. Tomatoes and mushrooms are super immune foods. Onion is both an immune builder and an antiseptic that protects the urinary tract from E Coli. Ginger added to hot water and honey makes a tea that some people swear cures the common cold, so adding a little fresh ginger to your diet a few times a week may just keep the doctor away. It might be intimidating to buy a ginger root, but it really is the best way to guarantee freshness (and immune support). Just peal back the top layer and grate it with your cheese grater. Garlic is both antibacterial and antifungal. Here's a hint, the more you chop the garlic the more immune builder you release and the better it is for you. I will confess that I used already crushed garlic in this soup, and I still felt better quickly. Even the rice, while not a direct immune builder, is great for providing an energy boost and helping prevent tummy troubles.

This is definitely our go to soup when someone at our house starts to feel under the weather. I hope it helps your house, too.