One of the most gratifying outcomes from writing a blog is friendship! I've been fortunate to meet many, many amazing and talented people from all over the world and I'm excited to introduce you to one of these awesome and inspiring people, Jona Friedri of Oh Wholly Vegan. Jona is currently living in Prague and set up her blog in January of this year to share her delicious vegan recipes, many of which are gluten free. Pictured below are just a few of her creations, the brussels sprouts recipe is one of my favourites!
Jona is one of the many lovely people I have been honoured to meet on the internet who have all discovered that food and diet can drastically help their healing process. I'm astounded by the power of food!
Jona also writes about her travels and life experiences and I highly recommend you find a moment to read this very informative post explaining how she has coped with her sleeping problems. I'm so happy that Jona is sharing her beautiful Rucola Cream Soup recipe here on my blog and if you are a little curious about "rucola", you may be relieved to know that it is actually more commonly known to us as Rocket or Arugula. I'll hand you over to Jona now..
Hi there,
I'm Jona from Oh, Wholly Vegan! and I'm here today to cook with you. Pretty excited about this opportunity, but first let me introduce myself.
I became vegan about two years ago when I was living in UK and I'm still holding on to this lifestyle even though I'm based in Prague at this moment. In the last two years I've learned a lot about food, about all the nutrients and vitamins that are essential for the human body to be sure that a plant-based diet is not harmful for people. I also went to school to learn all about it and few exams later I became a Certified Nutritionist.
When considering my studies and my own experience I can confirm that a plant-based diet can be very healthy. In my case there was a huge progress in my body functioning. I stopped holding water in my body and lost the bloated face that I used to have. I also lost some weight, however, the change wasn't that dramatic since I've always cared about what I'm eating and haven't many bad habits. If you're vegan you don't have to substitute much, but you will always have to take a B12 vitamin. This can be commonly found in B-complex tablets. All the B vitamins are essential for skin, nails & hair and taking these supplements has made a huge difference for me personally. The last and probably the biggest change in my life is the fact that I got rid off my allergies. These are the reasons why I am not afraid to say that veganism can be healthy, when practised correctly.
Now it's time to share one of my recipes. I prepared a rucola cream soup, which substitutes shredded potato for the more commonly used flour, therefore the recipe is gluten-free and I hope you'll like it.
Rucola Cream Soup
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 big potato, shredded
500 g rucola
300 ml vegetable broth / or water + 1 bouillon cube
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons almond or soy cream
salt, pepper to taste
To Serve (optional)
a few rucola leaves and/or 1 tablespoon of vegan sour cream per portion
- In a big pot heat the olive oil, add the onion and cook for about 3 minutes until the onion becomes a nice golden colour.
- Add the shredded potato and rucola and while stirring all the time cook for another 2 minutes.
- Add the vegetable broth. You can substitute the broth with the same amount (300 ml) of water and 1 cube of bouillon. Cook for 10 minutes while stirring occasionally so all the flavours blend together nicely. Then add the minced garlic.
- Use the hand blender to mix your soup properly. Once you're done you should have a nice creamy soup.
- Finally add 3 tablespoons of plant-based cream and cook for another 5 minutes. I prefer the almond cream for this soup but soy cream will work just as well.
- Take off the heat and add salt and pepper to taste. I usually decorate the final dish with few leaves of rucola but it also goes great with vegan sour cream.
I'd be pleased if you would try this recipe. Let me know whether you liked it or not and if you make any changes or substitutes, how they worked for the recipe. You can find more of my recipes on Oh Wholly Vegan!. Also, feel free to contact me if you have any questions about eating habits, veganism or nutrition.
xo,
Jona
Jona, thank you so much for sharing this lovely recipe with us
