★★★★★
Cindy, This is what an elderly woman who had pretty much been written off since she'd been hospitalized and given the most dramatic treatments for the virus ate... potato soup! It literally revived her. She's home now recuperating. Well potatoes are vitamin c, the onions have quercetin, &the pepper definitely breaks up the congestion. Happy healing! Margeaux
Potato Soup
★★★★★
Another note on the virus' aftermath - namely, the ongoing and unproductive coughing. I did not have the virus go down into my chest but it has been sitting, solid as a rock, in the back of my sinuses just above my throat. Nothing I tried would break it up. Not cayenne, not ACV, not vitamin C, not tea, lemon honey or steam - UNTIL - It occurred to me that the most comforting thing I can remember from when I was sick, as a child, was potato soup. Homemade potato soup. NON-CREAMED potato soup. There were two aspects of the "Irish" potato/onion soup my mom made. First, was the onion. Lost of onion. However much potatoes you used, you used half that amount of onion. Lots of onion. Which is, I suppose, a superfood but that's not the best part. The best part was the black pepper. Lots of salt and black pepper, together with the onion, would break up whatever congestion one had "stuck". I still haven't been out of the house so I have neither potatoes nor onions but I made a cup of sea salt and black pepper tea - NOT TO DRINK but, rather, to inhale. And it worked a treat!!works! The common, lingering cough leftover after a regular cold/flu respiratory virus during "the season" and it's breaking up. Almost instantly. I'm still going to make the soup which is as follows: 1 lb potatoes, chopped for boiling red onion (red for respiratory) - enough to make up half again as much potato Boil the potatoes and 1/4 of the onion in 4 cups of water until completely done and falling apart While the potatoes and onion are cooking, put 3 TBS of butter in a skillet and sautee the remaining onion until it is soft and mashable. Mash and whisk the fully cooked potatoes, onion and the water in which you've cooked them into liquid. Add the sauteed onion and butter to the mix and stir while reheating it all together. Whether you drink it from a mug or eat it with saltines, salt and pepper it to "tasty" before you eat it, mixing well after adding the salt and pepper. You want a spike of black pepper - ground or freshly ground, it doesn't seem to matter - that will make your nose run which is exactly what you want. Once it is breaking up, you can hit it with your vitamin C or whatever you're using to kill the virus because the "armor" of that viral congestion is broken down by the black pepper. You don't have to actually make soup - apparently, you can simply inhale a hheavy black pepper tea - but I can tell you that there is NOTHING more awesome than hot, buttery potato onion soup with lots of salt and pepper when you're sick. NOTHING! And I am SOOOOO glad to have that sinus "brick" broken up and the idea of not having that lingering, annoying/insane-driving, non-productive cough!
Potato Soup
★★★★★
One note - keep the soup this simple. It's not "food", in this instance. It's "medicine" so don't even try to "improve" it. If it needs more butter for the onion, increase the butter or add a little olive oil. If it needs a little more water while the potatoes and onion are cooking down, add some - but not too much because that's the "soup" part. DO NOT DRAIN OFF THE WATER - that's your "soup base". Just mix it all together.
