Daily Green Juice

I'm going to admit it.  I got a nasty hand fungus.  I believe it survived a lot of natural and unnatural selection at a laboratory where I was growing some worms for science.  We had to put antifungals in the growth media, although these chemicals did not work for every fungus.  We had a rampant fungus outbreak just about the time I got this cute "pet."  That was over a year ago.  I tried the OTC stuff, but as you can imagine, it didn't work.  This wasn't a garden-variety animal.  Fortunately, it does not seem to be contagious.  Unfortunately, I couldn't seem to get rid of it with pharmaceuticals.  I eventually gave up for awhile when my chiropractor noticed it.  She recommended many different things, all of which I tried and am still trying.  They are seeming to work, which is good.  One offhand comment she made, though, made me go overboard and sent my hand into a state which I was not sure it would return from.  Fortunately, it did.

She said, "oh, garlic will kill just about anything."  This, I thought, was the answer! After a few weeks of trying a little shaved garlic on it here and there, I saw it improving drastically.  Well, if a little works, then a lot will get rid of it once and for all! Right? I grated the garlic all over the rash and wrapped it in medical tape.  Six hours later, I took the tape off and it was the most disgusting rash I had ever seen.  There were actual boils.  I have never seen a real boil before.  If you want to see a picture, look here.  I am not going to assume everyone can stomach something like that.  I personally thought it looked pretty cool, being a science nerd, but it was definitely the grossest thing I have witnessed in real life.

So the next thing my chiropractor said to me was "don't do that again.  Let's take a gentle approach."  Gentle approach does not quite go with my personality, but my sledgehammer angle definitely made things ugly.  I'm pretty sure I pissed off my fungus with all that garlic. She suggested my low sugar/ increased greens diet.  She recommended a juice of kale, green apple, celery, and ginger twice per day.  This is much more palatable than the carrot, garlic, ginger, celery, and onion juice I was making.  I drink this morning and night, and make sure I have some greens in-between.  It's still hard, but my hand has improved drastically in the three weeks I have been doing this.

So without further ado:

1 cup kale
2 stalks celery
1 quarter-sized round of ginger about 1/4" thick
1/4 organic green apple
1/3 cup water

Juice all ingredients and pour the water in last to get every drop of juice out.  Pour into a cup and skim the foam off.  Enjoy!

Middle Eastern-style Kale Soup

Generally speaking, I like to have soup for lunch every day.  My rules are this: 1. It must always start with a rich broth made from the bones of an animal (NO exceptions!)  2.  It must have a whole grain and a legume, and 3. It must have some kind of green thrown in at the last minute.  The most important rule, though, is that it must be creative and invented on the spot. 

Because of my rules, I like to have pre-cut veggies on hand, and soaked beans and grains available to me at any time.  Also because of my rules, I end up with some pretty interesting soups that I never could have planned out.

For example, today's soup came from the simple addition of Tahini as a thickener.  I decided on this thickener because I heard it can be anti-fungal, and I am on a quest to get rid of this particular hand fungus.  I believe I got it while working in a laboratory over a year ago and have been on a low/no-sugar diet ever since the beginning of the year.  It's been improving, though I am always looking for some way to bolster my anti-fungus regimen. 

But, as with my soup cooking, I digress.  I will leave more details of that story for later.  So I was on an anti-fungal quest with my tahini, and once I put it in, I realized where in the world I was going with this.  The smell of sesame seeds and beans begged for some cumin and turmeric.  I finished it off with some ginger and, of course, the obligatory greens.  The result was spicy and peppery; a dense soup that offered tartness and earthiness.  A resounding success!

Here is my soup for today:

2 cups broth (I used turkey)
2 T dry rice
2 T dried split peas
1 T tahini
1 cup kale
2 T Juicer pulp from this recipe (or 1 T grated ginger)
3 shakes cumin
2 shakes turmeric
1 shake paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Garnish:
1 T whey (or buttermilk)
a few sprigs pickled kale
a sprinkling of pepitas and sunflower seeds

In a 2-qt saucepan, heat the broth with the rice and peas.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer until they are tender.
Add tahini and stir until thickened. 
Add juicer pulp or ginger and stir.
Shake in spices and add kale.  Remove from heat, stir, and cover a few minutes until kale is soft and buttery.
Pour in bowl and drizzle whey or buttermilk in.  Garnish with pickled kale and seeds.
Enjoy!


Serves one very happy person.