It’s the perfect time of year for pumpkin soup.
It’s warm, delicious, creamy, and overflowing with pumpkin.
What’s more, it’s loaded with many health benefits and less than ten carbohydrates per serving.
Sound too good to be true? It’s not. Try our Delicious Creamy Keto Zone Pumpkin Soup today.
Delicious Creamy Keto Zone Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil or butter (Organic or Grass Fed if available)
- 2 large yellow onions, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 15-ounce canned pumpkin puree (organic if possible)
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups water
- 1/2 cup canned coconut milk OR heavy cream
- Olive oil, to taste
Instructions
- In a large pot over medium heat, melt the butter.
- Add sliced onions to the pan and saute, stirring occasionally about 15 minutes until caramelized.
- Add the garlic, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger to onions and stir well to mix.
- Add 1/4 cup of stock to the pan. Stir and scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon or spatula.
- Add the rest of the broth. Stir in pumpkin puree.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer about 20 minutes.
- Remove from heat. Blend into a pureed soup either using an immersion blender or a regular countertop one. If using countertop, pour in batches and make sure to allow steam to escape while blending. Blend to puree and return to pan.
- Stir in the coconut milk heavy cream and mix through. Serve immediately.
- Drizzle olive oil over soup.
Nutrition info (based on 1.5 cups of soup and 1 tablespoon olive oil): 343 calories, 32 grams fat, 8 grams net carbohydrates (10 grams carbs, 2 grams fiber), 4 grams protein (84% fat)
Health Benefits of our Delicious Creamy Keto Zone Pumpkin Soup
1. Pumpkin Health Benefits
First, the star of the soup: Pumpkin.
While often used as an Autumn decoration, pumpkin is incredibly nutritious (1). In fact, it contains:
ANTIOXIDANTS Galore
Pumpkin contains alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, lutein, and zeaxanthin. These are strong antioxidants, and they will work together to fight free radicals, reduce the risk of cancer, promote heart health, reduce cholesterol-plaque formations, and preserve eye health (2).
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY NUTRIENTS
The cell walls of pumpkin contain a special fiber called pectin. Pectin it greatly anti-inflammatory, reducing symptoms and risk of heart disease, joint pain, arthritis, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, asthma, and more.
ANTI-CANCER ACTION AND BLADDER HEALTH
Along with the flesh and fiber of pumpkins, its seed oil is full of health benefitting nutrients. In fact, pumpkin seed oil has specifically been shown to reduce the risk of prostate, breast, colorectal, gastric, and lung cancer, arthritis, bladder, and urethral pressure, prostate disease, the progression of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes ( 3, 4, 5,).
HEART-HEALTH COMPONENTS
Pumpkin seeds also contain phytosterols. Phytosterols are the components used in cholesterol-lowering supplements, functional foods, and more. The carotenoids in pumpkin flesh can protect the heart and other body organs and tissue from free radical damage, oxidative stress, and plaque formation (6).
HIGH ENERGY AND MORE NUTRIENTS
Pumpkin is also a great source of fiber, monounsaturated fats, omega-3s, B-vitamins, and copper. B-Vitamins and Copper both play a part in energy production, and can make a difference in your get-up-and-go!
2. Spices: Ginger, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg
The health benefits of any recipe increase exponentially when you add spices. Here’s how:
CINNAMON Health Benefits
Cinnamon is a powerful antioxidant food. It is also:
- Highly Anti-Inflammatory (7)
- A Strong Antioxidant
- Reduces Insulin Resistance (8)
- Promotes Healthy Blood Sugars
- Fights Bacteria
Read more about these amazing benefits here.
GINGER Health Benefits
In addition to fighting joint pain, ginger is (see full details of 7 Reasons this Wonder Spice is Great for Your Whole Body):
- Effective Against Nausea (perhaps more than medications) (9, 10)
- An Anti-Cancer Food (11, 12)
- Full of Anti-Inflammatory (whole-body) Compounds and Antioxidants (13)
- Anti-Bacterial to Fight Infections (14)
- Beneficial to Cholesterol and Heart Health (15)
- A Pain-Fighter for Muscle and Menstrual Pain
- A Superfood with Functional Medicine Properties
NUTMEG Health Benefits
Much like cloves and the other spices listed here, nutmeg has compounds that work at the cellular level to improve health. Nutmeg:
- Relives Pain with volatile oils including myristicin, elemicin, eugenol, and safrole. These oils have anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-pain properties (16).
- Improves Sleep: Nutmeg has a calming effect when consumed in small doses. Ancient medicinal practices used it to improve sleep and provide relief from stress.
- It can reduce high blood pressure and improve circulation. Nutmeg contains calcium, iron, potassium, manganese, and more. Its minerals are good for reducing blood pressure and relaxing the blood vessels while keeping the heart functioning efficiently.
- Aides digestion with volatile oils. They provide a carminative effect on the digestive system. It can improve diarrhea, constipation, bloating or gas when added to foods or tea before bed.
- Improves oral health and bad breath. The oils in nutmeg are anti-bacterial and can improve oral health and breath. Its antibacterial compounds are so potent it is being researched against multidrug-resistant Salmonella strains (17).
- Supports brain health by stimulating the nerves in the brain and may reduce symptoms of depression, fatigue, and stress. In fact, studies are being performed to investigate its anticonvulsant effects (15).
3. Health Benefits of Garlic
Beyond its great taste, it will support your body’s health from your heart to your toes. Here’s how.
CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH
Garlic can lower blood triglycerides and total cholesterol. What’s more, it’s highly anti-inflammatory and a strong antioxidant, which means less damage to blood vessel cells (where plaques get lodged and do damage), less oxidative stress, and more healing (18).
ANTIBACTERIAL AND ANTIVIRAL BENEFITS
Garlic compounds are both antibacterial and antiviral in the body. They can reduce infections in our mouths, throats, stomachs, and GI tracts. In fact, garlic has been shown to reduce yeast overgrowth.
CELLULAR DETOXIFICATION
Garlic has a vast set of sulfur-containing compounds that reduce both oxidative stress and inflammation. Sulfur also promotes all stages of cellular detoxification. Together, these attributes work to protect our heart, our vessels, and our cells.
IMMUNE FUNCTION
Study after study concludes that garlic is an effective immune booster. It’s known to kill mycobacterial strains. In fact, its active compound allicin kills various microorganisms.
New lab studies show that it is even effective to help treat antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, including those that cause tuberculosis. That’s some strong food-as-medicine (19).
CANCER PREVENTION
Like many other fruits and vegetables, allium vegetables like garlic have strong anti-cancer properties. In longitudinal studies, a high intake of garlic is associated with reduced amounts of almost all cancers, (except breast and prostate, interestingly).
Garlic’s sulfides (once again) likely play the largest role in cancer prevention. These compounds activate a molecule in cells that trigger many metabolic activities, including programmed cell death, in the cell nucleus when something’s gone array (such as overgrowth in the case of cancer and tumors) (20).
MORE GARLIC HEALTH BENEFITS
In addition, garlic supports gut health, reducing the incidence of H. Pylori and subsequence ulcers promotes healthy blood sugars, and may even enhance the nutrient absorption of other foods.
Bottom Line
Sometimes you get lucky, and the most delicious foods have all the health benefits! Our Delicious Cream Keto Zone Pumpkin Soup in no exception. With health benefits from pumpkin, spices, garlic, and more, it’s a surefire way to satisfy your taste buds and whole-body health!
