Things this Sunday are quite blissful in the world of R khooks. No rushing off to a big food festival, no lying in bed with an awful flu…The sun is shining and I’ve had time to get my groceries from the local market, have a cup of tea and listen to my favourite radio show. There’s a pot bubbling on the stove with an experiment (I’ll be testing it out on my local guinea pigs later today and if it’s good, you’re be hearing about it too). So in all in all quite perfect =)

I made this soup last week while I was suffering from a cold which just wouldn’t go away. Inspired by my Austrian Grandma who used to make a Grießnockerl soup (Grießknockerl = semolina dumplings). The dumplings were always soft and had a delicious buttery taste. A steaming bowl of this is just what you need when you’re stuck in bed with a red nose.

While I was coughing, sneezing and spluttering germs I spent a lot of time reading up on “superfoods” and came across this about parsley,

“When tested in laboratory research, chlorophyll from parsley showed slight anti-bacterial and anti-fungal activity. Thus, it may be used to enhance immune response and to relieve mucus congestion, sinusitis and other ‘damp’ conditions.“

So there’s my “prescription” with natural anti bacterial elements plus some carrots for the vitamin C.

Baby parsley carrots & parsley Grießnockerl Bouillon

Baby parsley carrots

3 carrots
Handful of leaves of parsley (keep a bit of the stalk on)

Peel the carrots. Chop the carrot in 2.5cm pieces. Using a knife or a potato peeler “sculpt” or peel off some of the carrot to make the tip. Using a skewer poke a whole in the top and insert the stalk of the parsley leaf into the carrot.

Parsley Grießnockerl (or semolina dumplings)

1/2 bunch of parsley
2 cloves of garlic
100g semolina
30g butter, melted
1 egg
salt
pepper

1.5l stock (I used chicken stock but use vegetable is fine too)

Whizz the parsley with the garlic in a blender until you have a paste. In a bowl combine all the ingredients, season with salt and pepper. Make the dumplings by taking a teaspoon of the mixture and rolling it into a ball.

Bring the stock to the boil with carrots. Once the stock is boiling add the dumplings. Boil for 5 minutes. Take the pot of the heat. Cover and leave for 5 minutes. Garnish with a few fresh parsley leaves and serve.

Take a look at Cookthink “Parsley”/Root source food blog event for more “anti bacterial” recipes