A few weeks ago, I lead an intensive training in Ireland. One of the intentions of the training was to feed the group a minimalist diet to maintain focus and clarity while still nourishing and grounding the body. This nourishing potato soup helped us meet our objectives and stay full and satisfied.
If you’ve never experienced an intensive yoga teacher training, I can assure you that the name is appropriate. Spiritual trainings are intense regardless of the amount of time you try to condense learning into. Once you add additional factors like an international location, multiple weeks, and close quarters; you’re bound to experience something akin to an awakening. The thing is, awakenings aren’t pretty. That’s where this soup came into play. I knew I had to design a menu that would nourish the group and ground them to help their nervous systems acclimate to the challenges that were bound to arise in training.
Nourishing potato soup was only one of the five soup and salad combinations we rotated through over the 17 days we were together. The other soups we enjoyed included a hearty vegetable soup, tomato soup, cabbage soup, and carrot soup. Each soup choice included root vegetables to provide us with grounding elements of kapha (earth) in our meals. We were also following a sattvic diet, which excludes onion and garlic. The potato soup and the tomato soup were crowd favorites!
Ingredients:
Serves 4-6 people
- 3 Tbsp butter (or almond oil)
- ½ cup flour (or corn starch)
- 12 medium potatoes (peeled, cubed and boiled)
- ½ cup cream (omit to make vegan)
- 3-4 cups vegetable stock
Directions:
- Cube and boil the potatoes. Rinse when fork-tender and set aside.
- In a large pot, melt the butter at medium heat and allow it to bubble slightly. Remove from heat and shake the flour into the browning butter and whisk with a wire whisk until incorporated.
- Return to heat. Whisk in the cream to blend smoothly. You may need to add half of the vegetable stock to keep a nice liquid consistency as rues can turn into puff pastry quickly. Make sure it’s more like a white Alfredo sauce than a dough. Leave the rue on low heat, whisking occasionally to prevent lumps.
- Mash the potatoes or blend them in a food processor. Add the processed potato to the rue and blend to incorporate.
- While still thick, add the cheese. Once the cheese begins to melt, add the remaining vegetable stock. Salt and pepper to taste.
This soup pairs well with Irish soda bread and a crisp salad. Overall, the intensive training was a success. We spent just over two weeks in a house together learning and practicing yoga. By the end of the training all ten trainees were well equipped to teach Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin and Restorative yoga classes. Looking back, I’m so proud of the group and the amazing work they did together. I applaud them and look forward to taking their classes soon!
~Michelle