This is a folk recipe relayed to me by my aunt. It is for health, not taste. This soup will make you get well.
To make this soup you will need the following:
- one good sized pot
- a big hunk of ginger, peeled (the size of your fist)*
- lots of garlic (two heads per person)
- lots of onions (five per person, use whole ones. If you have a leftover half of an onion from the last time you cooked, toss 'em out)
- celery (two heads per serving)
- mushrooms (if you can afford some fancy Japanese shrooms, then by all means, go for those. Otherwise the cheap ones are fine)
- liquid (3 cups per serving: If you have access to stock, be it vegetable or animal, use that instead of or in combination with water)
- olive oil or butter (2-4 tablespoons per serving)
First bring the liquids to a boil on your stove. While that's going, go ahead and mince the ginger/onion and chop the mushrooms and celery. If you're afraid of dirt, rinse 'em.
Lower heat to a simmer. Toss in onion and garlic. Place your head over the pot and inhale deeply, the vapors will cleanse your sinuses. After you've done a few good hits of that, add the celery. Keep breathing.
Add mushrooms. Breathe more of that vapor.
Let the pot simmer for at least an hour or two. Think about how you're pretty much over feeling sicky and ready to be healthy again—maybe you feel well enough already that you won't really need this soup? Too late now!
Now the end throw in the ginger. Take a couple of more breathfuls of that good vapor (If you are using a very large pot, it may help to place a towel over your head to prevent the vapor from escaping. Don't drip snot into the pot!)
Alternately, if you have miso available, use that once the soup has begun to cool (heating the miso will kill the critters in there).
Enjoy and get well soon!
*a number of people have inquired about some of the measurements for this recipe, wondering what the yield should be. This recipe is meant for one individual to be fed; whether that individual cannot finish their soup in one sitting or not is up to them; if one is really sick then having this twice in one day is a good idea. So, yes you need to use a hell of a lot of ginger. This is an (inexact) medicinal recipe.