It’s good to be home. I had the loveliest holiday break, but it’s good to be home. Even though I knew I was coming back to two weeks worth of mail to sift through, groceries to buy, meals to plan, piles of laundry to wash, it’s all good.
As I’ve mentioned several times, I am not much on detox diets or cleanses after the holidays even though they are all the rage. I notice a lot of people overdo it even more between Thanksgiving and New Years knowing they will “cleanse” it all off starting January 1. Eh. If you just try eliminating sugar and flour for a few weeks, your health will improve drastically. You don’t need to give up real food and sip juice for a week. But that’s just my opinion.
However I do want to share an amazing, healing and very digestible soup recipe called Bieler’s Broth. This soup is nothing new. In fact, it has been around for decades, invented by a doctor named Bieler. The soup is vegan and all vegetable-based. It is not a culinary soup in the sense that it is so delicious that you would want to serve it to your friends at your next dinner party, but more of a medicinal soup. It tastes absolutely fine though, just a little bland.
According to Sally Fallon in her book Nourishing Traditions, Dr. Bieler felt that this combination of vegetables was ideal for restoring acid-alkaline and sodium-potassium balance to organs and glands, especially the sodium-loving adrenal glands which suffer under stress. The broth is also supportive for liver function — recall that the liver is our detoxifying organ. Bieler’s broth is highly recommended for those under stress or suffering from stress-related conditions. Know anyone stressed out? Yep, I thought so.
When I have had a lot of travel combined with a chaotic schedule and less than desirable eating, I’ll make a big batch of Bieler’s broth every few days and drink a mugful either as a snack during the day or with my breakfast or dinner. I don’t function well without protein and fats, so I can’t use this as a meal replacement.
I always notice a big improvement in my overall wellbeing after supplementing daily for 2 weeks with Bieler’s broth. I made a batch yesterday which should last 3 days and I’ll make another batch on Thursday to get me through the weekend.
I know that the vegetables in Bieler’s broth are not in season in the winter. I am normally opposed to that, but in this case it’s just temporary. Be sure to buy only organic vegetables since this is supposed to be a healing soup and pesticides will just add more toxins to the body. Also, zucchini is now a common GMO crop, so buying organic ensures you will be buying non-GMO.
Here’s hoping 2016 is off to a healthy start for you. If you’ve gotten off on the wrong foot, it’s never to late to start fresh. Do check out the dinner planner I started posting on Sundays! It will change your life to plan out your meals. Promise!
Bieler's Broth: a Healing, Restorative Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 medium zucchini, ends discarded and zucchini sliced into rounds
- 1 pound string beans, ends trimmed
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 1-2 bunches parsley, flat-leaf or curly, tough stems removed (you can freeze the stems for stock making)
- 4 cups water
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Skim any foam on the surface, lower the heat and simmer, covered until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.
- Puree soup in the pot with a handheld blender or in a blender in batches.
- Eat warm.
Notes
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
Thanks for the recipe. We just made this and are enjoying it greatly. We weren’t sure though what to make of the term “stalk” for celery. It seems that one interpretation is the entire head vs. a single rib. We used two heads and it was fine but now wonder if we should have only used two ribs.
Hi Lisa — a stalk is a rib. A “bunch” of celery would be the whole head.
Thank you for this post.
Would you also use frozen string beans?
I don’t see why not!
I (age 87) helped ‘ol Doc bieler birth all three of my kids, who are about 50 years old now. . I just re-found his book “Food is your best Medicine” and bought copies (Used) for my kids. Ir’s wonderful to find you are promoting his Zucchini broth and keeping this pioneer’s ideas alive
Seriously??? That’s amazing!!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Lamont Langworthy, what was Bieler’s view on unprocessed wet sun dried grey celtic sea salt?
Hi Pamela!
Thank you for this post! Amazing! There are variations on different websites of this broth. Some have celery and some don’t. Why is that? Which recipe is the real one? How do we know? Thank you so much for all of your time and energy toward this.
Cheers!
Evette
It’s interesting, because I thought this was the real one, and then a reader commented that Dr. Bieler was her personal doctor and he always suggested blending ghee with the soup to absorb nutrients. And I had never read that anywhere. Celery is very alkalizing and I think gives nice flavor to the soup, so I wouldn’t hesitate to use it.
We used unsalted grass fed butter in the early 80’s
Interesting!
Dr Bieler also told us to add a tablespoon or two to the broth(I add it to the blender when I am blending it) because the fat helps our bodies better assimilate another key nutrient in the green beans. He was our family doc when I was a kid.
Dr. Bieler was your family doctor??? That is amazing! Lucky you! What type of fat did you add to the broth??
I add Ghee.im sure coconut would be interesting.
I bet the ghee would also add some flavor. I was always under the impression that no fat should be added to make the broth more digestible.
Dr Bieler was my family’s doctor when I was growing up. His Bieler’s broth recipe called for equal parts green beans, celery, and zucchini. Cook in liquid until just soft the blend with a handful of fresh parsley and a pat or tablespoon of butter. He did not add anything else except a suggested sprinkle of paprika on top of each bowl of broth. On the internet you will see various additions like onion, garlic, potatoes, and many others but Bieler’s recipe only contained what I listed above. He preferred the butter to be unsalted.
Dr Bieler was our family doctor also. We lived on Camino Capistrano, Capistrano Beach, California, and he was our neighbor also.I was a sick kid and he changed my life. Been having this soup (that’s what we called it) since I was 14 years old.
How many days will this keep in the refrigerator?
4 days
Can the soup be frozen?
Sure!
Hi
Do you use the water in the blender?
Thanks
Janine
You transfer everything in the pot, including the water, to the blender.
thanks thought so 🙂
Hi Pamela!!,
My son has developed some gastrointestinal issues and we’ve been looking for ways to help ‘reset’ his gut. I’ll be making this soup tonight – so glad I remembered to search for it!
It’s such a wonderful soup. Hope your son finds relief soon!
Hi Pamela! First I have to say I adore your site and now make many of your recipes for my family…. so thank you!
I would love to make this soup… wondering if it’s ok to freeze? I’m expecting baby #2 in two weeks and I’m planning on making a few things to have in our freezer ready to go. Would freezing this soup take away from the healing benefits?
Thanks!
Congratulations and may you have an easy delivery! Yes, no problem to freeze this soup. Great idea!
Wonderful!! Making this week. Thank you so much Pamela! Yes, we are so ready to meet our new addition!
Hi Pamela, wondering if you can subsitiute organic bone broth in place of the water for protein? Would this in any way inhibit the purpose of the soup?
I think that would work well as bone broth is healing and very digestible!
If you suffer from Histamine Intolerance, bone broth as well as all fermented foods (what is normally consumed for leaky gut ) are definite NO-No’s! I just found this out
I knew that about fermented foods, but I didn’t know that bone broth trigged a histamine response. Thanks for sharing.