Nourish your brain

Keep the brain healthy and boost your mood with these nourishing recipes from Nutritionist and author of the Brain Boost Diet, Christine Bailey (www.christinebailey.co.uk).

Vegetarian hot and sour soup

This recipe includes fresh turmeric, which is not traditional but a fabulous way to include more anti-inflammatory spices in your diet. If you can get tempeh, then use this instead of tofu. Alternatively, omit the tofu and use two to three eggs instead. Seaweed is a great source of trace minerals including iodine which is essential for brain cognition.

Serves 2
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 11 minutes

Ingredients:

• 10g/small handful of dried seaweed, for example, nori, dulse, wakame
• 500ml of vegetable stock
• 1tsp of root ginger, grated
• 1tsp root turmeric finely grated
• ½ red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• 2 shiitake mushrooms thinly sliced
• 1 small carrot cut into julienne
• 225g can canned bamboo shoots drained
• 1tbsp mirin
• 1tbsp tamari soy sauce
• 1tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 handful of beansprouts
• 150g of tempeh or tofu, firm, cut into small cubes
• 2tsp white miso paste
• 1tbsp cornflour mix into a paste with 3tbsp water
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 chopped spring onion to garnish

Method:

• Place the seaweed in a small bowl and cover with water. Leave to soak for 15 minutes then drain.
• Place the stock with the drained seaweed, ginger, turmeric, chilli, spring onions, mushrooms and carrot in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for five minutes until the vegetables are tender. Add the bamboo shoots, wine, soy sauce, vinegar, beansprouts, tempeh or tofu and cornflour paste and stir well until the soup begins to thicken about five minutes. Slowly drizzle in the beaten egg into the soup to form ribbons stirring as you pour.
• Ladle the soup into bowls and scatter over the spring onion to serve.

Recipes copyright Christine Bailey