I have a cold. So does Finn (my 8 month old), and my neighbor across the street and our doorman and as far as I can tell pretty much everyone that we’ve encountered over the last week. I feel comforted to not be alone in my congestion, but my cold seems to have taken up residency and shows no signs of wanting to vacate.  So at this point I’ve decided I’m just going to have to feed it. (Or is it starve a cold, feed a fever?….)

I’m a big believer that when it comes to curing colds, 90% of the effectiveness of any remedy is believing that it will help.  I used to be an Echinacea user until I read that it’s no more effective than sugar water, and that was it for me. I’ve also tried mushroom tablets, oregano pills, zinc, gargling with salt water, nasal irrigation, excessive quantities of water and visualizing the cold germs being run out of my body by an army of healthy foot soldiers.  This time round, I’m putting my money on soup.

I’ve decided to participate in no other remedy except eating large quantities of this tomato, kale and white bean soup. (Which is not hard given that I made enough to feed a hospital ward.)  Chicken soup has a healing rap, and this one starts with homemade chicken stock (key), tomatoes (high in Vitamin C), beans (hearty protein to boost the immune system), and kale (high in antioxidants).

And even if this soup does nothing to cure what ails, it sure beats the taste of zinc pills.

(One tip to keep in mind: to maximize the nutrients of the kale, add only the amount of kale you’ll eat at that time rather than adding it all to the soup and then chilling or freezing the remainder of the soup. The kale will be more vibrant and more nutritious if you add it, heat it and eat it, as needed.  Make sense?)

Get the recipe for White Bean, Kale, Tomato Soup, here.

Give us your cold remedies!  Ideally food related, but if you have any non-food tips, we’ll take those too …