Here is a master recipe for how to make medicinal herbal soups using any edible fresh or dried herb. Use this tasty herbal soup recipe to help you with the symptoms of a cold or the flu, or enjoy it anytime to help boost your immunity.
When the weather turns cold, there is nothing like enjoying delicious homemade soup, especially if you feel under the weather! The herbal soup I share today is especially beneficial thanks to all the wonderful antiviral and antibacterial properties the herbs contain.
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Table of Contents
- Disclaimer
- What is a Master Recipe for Making a Medicinal Herbal Soup?
- Herbs Have Culinary and Medicinal Properties
- Which Herbs Are Best for Making a Medicinal Herbal Soup?
- The Healing Properties of a Medicinal Herbal Soup
- Creating a Healing Pantry as Part of Your Prepper Pantry
- Books About the Healing Properties of Herbs
- 15 Essential Medicinal Herbs for Your Herbal Medicine Cabinet
- Using Mushrooms in Your Medicinal Herbal Soup
- More Master Herbal Recipes
- Master Recipe for Medicinal Herb Tea
- Turmeric Tea to Boost Your Immune System
- How to Sweeten Your Tea
- What to Do with Food Scraps
- How to Cook with Scraps
- More Soup Recipes
- Redmond Real Salt for Your Medicinal Herbal Soup
- Download Your Free 36-Page Pantry List
- The Modern Pioneer Cookbook
- Kitchen Academy Videos
- Kitchen Academy Videos
- Medicinal Herbal Soup Master Recipe Recipe
- Shop for items used in this blog post or video
Disclaimer
I am not a doctor or medical professional. If you are not feeling well, please seek professional medical attention and medicine. And if you are thinking of supplementing your treatment with home remedies, be sure to talk to your medical professional about them. It’s important that you get the medicine and treatments you need to get back to good health.
What is a Master Recipe for Making a Medicinal Herbal Soup?
A master recipe gives you the structure for making a particular dish and lets you customize the ingredients you use. In this post, I show you a master recipe for making a medicinal herbal soup with the ingredients I used in my recipe video.
However, you’re not limited to using the same ingredients I chose when you make the recipe. With a master recipe, you can personalize the ingredients you use to bring out the flavors you enjoy or want the nutrition from. For example, you can choose the number and type of edible herbs for your soup and whether the herbs are fresh or dried.
Herbs Have Culinary and Medicinal Properties
Learning how to make a medicinal herbal soup using any combination of edible herbs may be one of the best things you can do when it comes to eating healthy and improving your overall health.
Although we often think of herbs in a culinary capacity, they actually have many medicinal properties, including antiviral and antibacterial qualities, making them perfect additions to any soup when you are battling with a cold or the flu. (I include links to research studies on herbs later in this recipe post.)
However, herbs’ medicinal properties don’t stop there. Many offer anti-inflammatory properties. And anything we can eat or drink that can tamp down inflammation in our bodies is a win for our health.
Many herbs also contain antioxidants. Unfortunately, oxidation, just like inflammation, is damaging to our health. So stopping oxidation in its tracks helps us maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Which Herbs Are Best for Making a Medicinal Herbal Soup?
The good news about making a medicinal herbal soup is that you can basically use any variety of edible herbs. So it comes down to choosing herbs whose flavor you enjoy as well as herbs that contain the healing properties you desire.
For this recipe, we will use two large bunches—two fistfuls—of herbs, many of which are usually associated with culinary purposes. I chose chives (from the allium family), tarragon, flat-leaf Italian parsley, and thyme.
I decided on this combination of herbs for this particular batch of soup because each one is very flavorful, but when combined, they contain a host of medicinal properties, including:
- Analgesic
- Anticancer
- Anti-diabetic
- Anti-inflammatory
- Antimicrobial
- Antioxidant
- Cardioprotective
- Neuroprotective
Wow! I don’t know about you, but those are some stellar health benefits from such a simple combination of herbs, all of which can easily be grown in our gardens or even on a sunny windowsill.
Remember that you don’t have to stick with this particular combination of herbs. This master recipe is very versatile and allows you to use the edible herbs you like best!
The Healing Properties of a Medicinal Herbal Soup
My printable recipe lists all the ingredients that I used to make this master recipe, and as I mentioned earlier, the herbs I chose for my medical herb soup include:
- Chives
- Flat-Leaf Italian Parsley
- Tarragon
- Thyme
If you find the medicinal side of herbs interesting to learn about, specifically the edible herbs I picked to use in my soup, be sure to read these research articles on herbs:
- The Health Benefits of Allium Flavonols
- Biological Properties of Parsley
- Antibacterial Effects of Tarragon
- Therapeutic Properties of Thyme
Creating a Healing Pantry as Part of Your Prepper Pantry
As I have shared with you in the past, I am a huge proponent of creating a Four Corners Pantry. If this term is new to you, this pantry encompasses your:
- Working Pantry – where you store non-perishable foods you access every day.
- Refrigerator
- Freezer
- Extended or Prepper Pantry – where you store your backup non-perishable food to refill your Working Pantry when your supplies run low.
I have also shared with you in the past that it’s smart planning on the part of every homemaker—every Modern Pioneer in the Kitchen—to also carve out an area of your Prepper Pantry to store emergency foods and supplies that can be used in the event that you are without power or clean running water.
You can learn how to build an emergency pantry in my How to Build a Two-Week Emergency Food Supply video. (And be sure to download and print out my free printable checklist and meal plan.)
- How to Build a 2-Week Emergency Food Supply (Includes Printable Checklist and Meal Plan)
You can also download my free 36-page pantry list to help you stock your Four Corners Pantry with real food.
Your Herbal Medicine Cabinet
With that in mind, it’s also a good idea to dedicate a small area of your Prepper Pantry to serve as your Healing Pantry. This Healing Pantry can store the supplies you want to keep on hand to address minor medical issues that can be easily treated at home, such as the symptoms of a common cold.
Storing a wide variety of dried herbs in your Healing Pantry can assist you when you need to make various herbal home remedies. You can think of this part of your Healing Pantry as your Herbal Medicine Cabinet! (I will be sharing more about how to stock a Healing Pantry and create an Herbal Medicine Cabinet in a future video and corresponding blog post.)
Note: As I mentioned in my disclaimer, never delay seeking medical treatment when you need it!
Books About the Healing Properties of Herbs
If you want to learn more about herbs and the role they can play in your traditional foods kitchen, be sure to check out two of my all-time favorite books on the subject:
- Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide: 33 Healing Herbs to Know, Grow, and Use
- Kami McBride’s The Herbal Kitchen: Bring Lasting Health to You and Your Family with 50 Easy-to-Find Common Herbs and Over 250 Recipes
And if you’re interested in growing herbs and other plants in your garden, here are the Top 10 Best Gardening Books for Creating Your Kitchen Garden.
15 Essential Medicinal Herbs for Your Herbal Medicine Cabinet
My master recipe for making a medical herbal soup uses fresh herbs. However, if you have a good supply of dried herbs on hand, you can substitute edible dried herbs in place of using fresh herbs. (You can also use a combination of fresh and dried herbs if you have both on hand.)
Having access to fresh herbs means that you have to visit the grocery store, farmers market, or your backyard garden. However, if you’re not able to leave your house or grow a garden, keeping a good supply of dried herbs in your Working Pantry or a section of your Prepper Pantry, designated as your Healing Pantry, will serve you well. And part of your Healing Pantry includes a well-stocked Herbal Medicine Cabinet.
Want to get started creating your Herbal Medicine Cabinet? Check out the videos below, where I share a total of my 15 favorite essential medicinal herbs to grow, dry, and stock in your pantry.
Using Mushrooms in Your Medicinal Herbal Soup
In my video, I talk about adding fresh mushrooms to your medicinal herbal soup, which I make with a mixture of chicken bone broth and water as my liquid. However, you can also use mushroom broth instead of bone broth or water. Mushroom broth is easy to use and highly nutritious, as I show you in my How to Make a Super Mushroom Broth recipe video.
More Master Herbal Recipes
If you enjoy learning about making your own home remedies using herbs, check out my complete series of Master Recipes for Making Medicinal Herbal Remedies, including how to make herbal oils, salves, tinctures, and syrups. These herbal remedies are easy to make and will save you money from having to buy ready-made versions from your local health store.
Master Recipe for Medicinal Herb Tea
If you enjoy herb tea, you will love learning how easy it is to make your own medicinal herb tea following my master recipe. Then I use that recipe to show you how to make what I like to call a Great Night’s Sleep Tea. A few sips, and you’ll be ready to drift off to dreamland!
Turmeric Tea to Boost Your Immune System
And speaking of teas, if you feel the sniffles coming on, be sure to make some turmeric tea. It’s very tasty, and it’ll help with your symptoms to get you on track to feeling better in no time!
How to Sweeten Your Tea
If you like your herb or spice teas sweetened—or even your black or green teas—be sure to make this healthy simple syrup to have on hand. It’s a better option than white sugar and a tastier one too!
What to Do with Food Scraps
After making your medicinal herbal soup, you’ll have some leftover vegetable scraps. Don’t throw these out! Potato or carrot peelings and onion skins should go right into your scrap bag to use when making your next batch of bone broth.
In my herbal soup recipe, I use chicken bone broth. You can use your scrap bag to make homemade bone broth, such as in a slow cooker, on your stovetop, or in your Instant Pot, as I show you in the following videos.
Regrow Kitchen Scraps
And did you know that some of your vegetable scraps can be grown into new vegetables? It’s true! And I show you how in one of my most popular videos, 10 Vegetables You Can Grow from Kitchen Scraps.
How to Cook with Scraps
Sometimes you may find that you have scraps that don’t work particularly well for making bone broth or regrowing into new vegetables. When you run into that situation, you can still save those scraps.
You can make appetizers, a meal, or a seasoning blend with your leftover scraps. And I show you how in the following videos. (I talk about cooking with leek greens in today’s recipe video.)
Books for Cooking with Scraps
For more ideas on cooking with scraps, watch the video below, where I share my favorite cookbooks on this subject. Once you learn to look at your food scraps in a new light, you will never want to throw out food again, and you’ll be well on your way to creating a no-waste kitchen!
More Soup Recipes
When the outside temperature dips, it’s not uncommon for some of us to come down with a cold or the flu. So if you find yourself grabbing a box of tissues, be sure to make this soup too. It’s one of the best home remedy for colds and flu. You will be surprised at how warm and comforting it will be just after the first sip!
And who can resist chicken soup with delicious ingredients, including all the goodness of bone broth?
Redmond Real Salt for Your Medicinal Herbal Soup
When it comes to using salt in my recipes, especially this herbal soup, I always like to use a real salt – a living salt – that has not been processed and does not contain any extra added chemicals or anti-caking agents. Sea salt and Redmond Real Salt are perfect choices! And if you’d like to order Redmond Real Salt from their website, be sure to check out my Shopping Guide for a discount coupon code.
- Redmond Real Life – For Real Salt and other products, use this link and discount code MARYSNEST for 15% off your purchase. (Discount will show at checkout.)
Download Your Free 36-Page Pantry List
For an extensive list of the traditional foods you can make and purchase to stock your pantry, be sure to download my free 36-page Traditional Foods Pantry List. This comprehensive eBook is full of links to recipe videos, helpful articles, and more!
And if you’re looking for a printed book full of my traditional foods recipes that shows you how to create a traditional foods kitchen, be sure to preorder your copy of my new book, The Modern Pioneer Cookbook.
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The Modern Pioneer Cookbook
Seasonal ingredients, traditional techniques, and nourishing recipes. Over 85 traditional, from-scratch recipes! Discover for yourself how you can use simple ingredients and traditional techniques to cook the modern pioneer way.
Kitchen Academy Videos
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Kitchen Academy Videos
Baking with Ancient Grains in the Traditional Foods Kitchen
Bake with Einkorn, Emmer, and Spelt—nutritious ancient grains that bring rich flavor and tradition to your favorite recipes.
Discussing the Secrets to Perfect Green Herbal Oils
Let’s talk about the popularity of flavored herbal oils.
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Medicinal Herbal Soup Master Recipe
Equipment
- 4-5 quart Soup pot
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp Butter, unsalted
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 medium Red-skinned potato If you plan on puréeing the soup, use a peeled potato.
- 3 Leeks, white part only Alternatively, you can use one large white or yellow onion or multiple bunches of spring onions.
- 3 Carrots, peeled
- 3 stalks Celery
- 1 Parsnip, peeled optional
- 1 – 2 Spicy peppers, any variety
- 2 inch Fresh ginger, peeled
- 1 – 2 cups Salad greens, rough chopped optional
- 1 cup Sliced fresh mushrooms optional
- 2 large bunches Fresh edible herbs, any combination For my recipe video, I used chives, flat-leaf Italian parsley, tarragon, and thyme. You can substitute dried edible herbs for fresh ones, but you will use considerably less. This will require a bit of trial and error, as well as tasting. So start with 1/4 cup of dried herbs and work up from there.
- 4 cups Bone broth Alternatively, you can use broth or all water.
- 4 cups Water
- Fine ground sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano Optional for grating on the soup when serving
Instructions
- Add the butter and oil to a medium-size soup pot.
- As the butter melts and incorporates with the olive oil, begin chopping the potato and all the vegetables into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.
- Slice the spicy pepper(s) and remove the seeds and membrane if you want less spice. Set aside.
- Peel the ginger and mince. Set aside.
- Give all the edible herbs you are planning on using a rough chop. If any of them have tough stems, remove the stems first before chopping the herbs.
- Once the butter has melted, add in the potatoes and stir well to coat with the butter-olive oil mixture.
- Next, add in all the vegetables, spicy pepper(s), and ginger and stir well to coat.
- If using salad greens, mushrooms, or both, add them at this time and stir well to coat.
- Now, add in all the edible herbs you are using and once again stir everything very well to coat.
- Pour the bone broth and the water into the soup pot, mix well, and bring up to a boil. When the soup comes up to a boil, immediately turn it down to a medium simmer and cover the soup pot.
- After 10 minutes, check on the soup. If the potatoes and other vegetables are tender, the soup is ready.
- Taste the soup and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper if desired.
- Ladle the soup into serving bowls. You can top it with some hard-grated cheese if you want, such as a Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano.
- You can store this soup well-wrapped in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days or frozen in a freezer-proof container for 2 to 3 months.
Video
Notes
Shop for items used in this blog post or video
Favorite Kitchen Supplies
- Favorite Aprons
- Countertop Burner (On my kitchen island in many recipe videos.)
- Soup Pot
- Spice Grinder
- Handheld Vacuum Sealing System
- Vacuum Lids
- Whisk
- Silica Gel Packets (Helps keep moisture from building up in your mix)
- Cast Iron Dutch Oven
- 8-Quart Slow-Cooker
- Fat Separator (Clever kitchen device to help you decant bone broth)
- Flour Sack Towels
- pH Strips (Helps you check on the acidity of your vinegar)
More Kitchen Supplies with Discount Codes
- Mockmill Grain Mill (for making homemade flour)
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Recommended Reading
Disclaimer:I am not a medical doctor, a medical professional, a dietician, or a nutritionist. All content found on the MarysNest.com website, including text, images, videos, eBooks or eGuides, social media, or other formats, were created solely for informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or proper nutritional advice. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have watched in a video or read on this website. Use caution when following the recipe in this video. The creator and publisher of this video and website will not be held responsible for any adverse effects that may arise from the use of this recipe and method or any other recipe and method on this website or corresponding video channel.
Mary, that is absolutely brilliant about making green soup (rather than a cold smoothie in the BRRRR chill of winter). I must make it soon. Could I make it in my 6 quart Instant Pot? It does have a saute function and I think it would be faster than on the stovetop. And it would draw out more flavor and nutrients from the herbs and veggies. Your thoughts on this, please.
I have made your chicken bone broth a few times. Only once did it not gel. Don’t know why. Thank you for helping us become better homemakers and helping us treat ourselves, our families and our planet better.
Hi Ross,
Thanks for your kind comments. Yes. You could try it in the Instant Pot. Keep me posted on how it turns out.
I’m sorry to hear that your chicken bone broth didn’t gel one time. There are a lot of factors that could contribute to bone broth not gelling, such as if the temperature is too high, there’s not enough high cartilage bones, etc. If you haven’t tried them already, chicken feet are the perfect insurance policy to help make your bone broth gelatinous. I talk about how to make collagen-rich bone broth for under two dollars at https://marysnest.com/how-to-make-collagen-rich-bone-broth-for-under-2-dollars/
Thank you again for your kindhearted words. I’m so glad we’re on this traditional foods journey together! 🙂
Love and God bless,
Mary
Mary!Thanks a lot! Your tips and recipes are very helpful and timely!
Hi Tatiana,
Thanks so much for your kind comment. I appreciate it, and I’m so happy to be of help.
Love and God bless,
Mary
Hi Mary.
This looks yummy. Is it ok to swap the parsnips with either turnips or swede or just leave the parsnips out ? Also, can we add a couple of table spoons of cream at the end in place of the cheese ?
Hi Naseebah,
Thanks for your kind comment. Yes. Feel free to swap out the parsnips for turnips or swede (Rutabaga) or leave the parsnips out altogether.
And yes, putting cream in your soup in place of the optional cheese when serving sounds delicious!
This is a master recipe, so please feel free to make it your own.
Thank you again for your comment. I’m sure other folks will enjoy reading about your ideas for swapping out ingredients.
Love and God bless,
Mary