Soothing Bowls
Mar 21, 2025
A bowl of soup, stew or curry can be a great comforter or hydrating light meal at any time we feel we need some inner warmth.
Nourishment through food isn't simply about the nutrients we take in, but the taste, sense of satisfaction and sensory experience. This is part of nutrition as safety, not just tuning in to our personal, intuitive feelings for what our system feels open to receiving, but also as the deep and satisfying nourishment that calms and soothes.
In autumn or winter, the bowl of soup or stew can warm us in a very real way from the inside out. When we were moving into the first colder months of spring, it can help us transition from more dense eating in the colder months towards the lighter eating of summer. Soup can be a really welcome light evening meal if we are giving our digestion a rest towards bed for full gut healing, detoxification of tissues and cells, and immune replenishment overnight.
There has even been research on the comforting qualities of a bowl of soup or stew, with many associated soup with healing support of a caregiver when they were young. Others report comfort food (including a bowl of soup or stew for many) can even help alleviate feelings of loneliness, with one paper following the ancient wisdom of the healing properties of ‘Jewish penicillin’ not just because of its nutritional content, but stating that:
“Chicken soup really is good for the soul; "comfort food" fulfils the need to belong.” (Troisi, 2011)
Whatever your choice of ingredients, it is the warmth, shape and soothing liquid of soups and stews that can deliver such soothing properties.
Our long history with bowls of food
Pottery in the form of bowls was around long before humans became farmers. Hunter-gatherers have used bowls as art forms, ritual objects (probably before they were used for food) and the perfect vessels for cooking and keeping in heat. There is an inherently comforting quality to a beautiful piece of pottery or earthenware, in the design, proportions and weight that we find most pleasing. You may even want to go out and buy yourself that perfect bowl, if you don’t feel it is already within your reach!- Slow-cooking follows the historical journey of the cooking bowl in farming, as we needed to find ways to break down the hard-to-digest grains and pulses. These had not been eaten by hunter-gatherers in any large quantities, but as populations grew, farming became the only way to sustain food supplies to more people. Bowls then also became processing vessels for yoghurt making, soaking grains for porridge and other ways of processing food.
- Cooking grains and pulses long and slow, with garlic and onions has been a part of many traditional cuisines. This ancient processing practice has shown to break down the dietary lectins and phytic acid that can create gas, bloating and discomfort and inflammation, as well as blocking zinc and iron absorption (crucial for all body system function), which can be an issue in those on a purely plant-based diet. Amazingly, most cultures across the world used that resonant wisdom of garlic and onions, as seen in daal in India, tagines in North Africa.
The convenience of soups & stews
Whether you are an omnivore, vegetarian or vegan, a bowl of soup or stew can provide an easily digestible, low maintenance and convenient meal that you can make batches and freeze to pull out later.- A soup thermos flask can keep it warm for an easy and cheap lunch and a slow-cooked meal can be ready for you (and smelling wonderful) when you get in from work. All of this means less stress around food, particularly if you are preparing for just yourself or a family.
- Any soup, stew or curry can be slow-cooked (except a miso broth), following our ancestors’ modes of cooking long and slow over an open fire, which can simply never cook very fast or to any great heat. Modern slow cookers (or crock pots in the US) replicate this low heat that retains nutrients and never oxidises food, keeping it as supportive and nutritious as possible, whilst breaking in down into the most digestible forms for the human digestive tract.
How to fill a soup - healthy ingredient options
Whether filling a slow cooker, a pan on the stove or a blender, getting creative with what you like and feeling free to experiment makes it easy to pull together a soup or stew quickly, layering such ingredients as:
- Cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, mustard greens) for sulphurophanes; cell and liver detoxification enzymes, sulphur for collagen production and healing all body tissues, including the gut wall; cooking these long and slow reducing their gas-producing tendencies.
- Chicken and cabbage as a potent combination to provide the amino acid glutamine to feed gut cells – the basis of ‘Jewish medicine’! For vegans and vegetarians, the chicken can be swapped with black beans, lentils or other pulses.
- Squash vegetables for bulk alternatives to starchy carbs such as potatoes and grains, they contain healing coumarin antioxidants.
- Carotenoid vegetables (carrots, beetroot, for fat-soluble antioxidants (eg beta carotene and lutein) and starches that protect fatty areas of the body from damage; organs, brain, cell membranes, nerves and tissues in the respiratory and digestive tracts.
- Coconut milk option for MCTs (medium-chain triglycerides), healthy fats that feed the gut wall and raise metabolism, as well as having strong anti-microbial action.
- Spices for gut calming, healing, antioxidants (turmeric, cumin, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, coriander) – these need fat present for absorption, so great with coconut eg in a curry or other oils included.
Soups & stews for hydration
- Our ancestors would not have access to glasses or water bottles in the wild and we are not lapping animals; we can only sip small amounts of water from streams or rivers at a time. Hydration would have been through water bounds up in plants, where the minerals and complex sugars they contain supports us absorbing the fluid into cells and tissues. This makes soups and stews particularly hydrating and supportive for barriers in the body (and their microbiomes; beneficial organisms) such as mouth, nose, digestive and lung walls.
- Hydration is one of the best basic needs to support all body systems. When we are dehydrated, we tend to produce more histamine which is part of the inflammation cascade - it is also an excitatory neurotransmitter and can contribute to a racing mind and the stress response that also prompts inflammation as part of survival mechanisms.
- Good hydration helps to keep histamine levels down and to prevent the over-production of mucus that can also come as part of a dehydrated body, when our body tends to overcompensate. Hydrating between meals with teas that we can sip to help clear out anything that might come into the mouth or airways is key. The swallowing action helps anything unwelcome to be killed off by our gastric juices and stomach acid rather before it further into the blood stream.
