When winter strikes, there’s always the inevitable cold, accompanied by the infamous sore throat. You’ll spend a week or so miserable, croaking away to your friends about how your particular cold is far worse than anyone else’s. When you stop receiving sympathy and start receiving disgruntled looks each time you wince or bring up your sore throat, you’ll retreat inside and sit it out alone.
Avoid cabin fever by keeping yourself occupied with some delicious soup recipes to ease your woes! Soups are great for a sore throat as they’re easy to swallow, but soups containing a lot of dairy or acid, such as tomato soup, will irritate your throat.
Try out some of these soothing recipes, instead.
Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken noodle soup could lay claim to being the most comforting soups out there. Make a nice chicken stock broth and season with salt and pepper, as much or as little as you please. Add some chicken thighs to the broth and leave them to boil for about an hour, or until the meat begins to fall away from the bone.
See the best kitchen shears to cut chicken.
Once the chicken is cooked, add some celery, carrots, crushed garlic, and cilantro. You can include as many more vegetables as you like, but these in particular will give you the nutrients you want to ease your ailments. Once the carrots are getting soft enough, throw in some rice noodles and let them cook for a further five to seven minutes. Yum!
Hot and Sour Mushroom, Cabbage, and Rice Soup
This is a tangy and spicy, delicious soup. It’s filled with nutrients and vitamins to reduce your time spent indoors and get you back to your life. It’s best when made using a turkey or chicken broth, but vegans and vegetarians can make an equally delicious broth with vegetable stock.
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To make a truly delicious broth, add some lime and garlic to the mix. These also contain valuable nutrients that will aid the mending of your sore throat.
Once you’ve got your stock ready, add in your sliced cabbage, mushrooms, and rice. The rice adds a nice amount of bulk to keep you full, reducing the amount of time you’ll need to spend cooking during the day. No one likes having to cook a lot when they’re sick!
Garlic and Spinach Soup
If you like garlic and ginger, this is a great soup for a sore throat. People will often drink ginger and honey in a tea to ease a troublesome throat, as ginger helps to flush toxins from your body as well as increase your blood flow. It also acts as an anti-inflammatory to kill off bacteria. This is an easy and inexpensive soup to make.
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Bring a chicken broth with minced garlic and ginger to the boil. After about 10 minutes, add some sliced zucchini to the mix and cook until that turns soft—about another 10 minutes—and reduce the heat. Add some cooked, cubed chicken and cook for a further 5 minutes.
You can also include some noodles for a bit of bulk. Once the noodles are cooked, throw a few cups of spinach into the saucepan and cook for 2 minutes. Voila!
Pho Ginger and Lime Soup
Guaranteed to blow your winter woes away, this delicious ginger and lime soup is packed full of nutrition to clear your nose and heal your aching throat.
Heat a few spoons of sesame oil in a pot and add a chunk of ginger, peeled and chopped. Cook that for about 10 minutes before pouring your chicken broth over it. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
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Add chopped carrots and onions to the mix. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until the carrots are soft. Stir in some curry powder, ground ginger, pepper, salt, and cayenne pepper. Throw in a finely chopped jalapeño pepper, along with the juice of three limes.
Simmer the mix and stir every 15 minutes. Do this for about half an hour for the flavors to blend. In the meantime, fry some chicken in sesame oil. Add this to the broth, along with some rice noodles and cook for about 10 or 15 minutes. Add the juice of a further three limes and stir. Let it simmer for 10 minutes.
Need to thicken your soup? Here’s how to make a thick hearty soup with cornstarch.
Get well soon!
These soups are bound to clear up any pains in your throat, blocked noses, or general winter colds. They’re all cheap to make and filled with goodness. Cooking is also a lovely way of taking your mind off things when you’re sick. So get out of bed, make one of these recipes, and feel better soon!
Craving a creamy soup? Here’s my review of the best hand blenders for soup. Or perhaps you’d prefer a stew. Here are my top picks for stew pots.
Tea is also a soother of sore throats. Brew your loose leaf tea in one of these gorgeous pots.
Check out Halls Honey-Lemon Sugar-Free Cough Drops at Amazon
Prepare your soups in the best ceramic cookware! For other great recipes, see my recipes section. You’ll find everything from Southern comfort food, to authentic Italian pesto, to Asian sticky rice. Plus a new how-to on making your own hot curry powder.
Image credit via Flickr Creative Commons: Jeffrey W. and DeaShoot.
