How to Thicken Soups Naturally

Hearty, warm soups have warmed our souls since ancient times. Thickening our soups requires a fattening roux composed of equal parts of butter or oil and flour cooked over medium heat. Or, one can use a cornstarch slurry of equal parts water to nutritionally vacuous cornstarch. Learn how to thicken your soup by adding omega-3's and fiber.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Coffee Grinder
• Organic flax seeds
• Cooked soup ready to thicken
• Wooden spoon

How To Thicken Foods with Flax

1. Grind the flax seed up in a coffee grinder. Bring soup to a boil and gradually add the flax seed and stirring constantly. The hot porridge will gradually begin to thicken.

2. Pull the soup pot off of the fire as soon as desired thickness is achieved and serve in warmed bowls.

3. Garnish your favorite, chopped fresh herb to the soup prior to serving for extra eye appeal, flavor, and for it's medicinal virtues.

Tips & Warnings

• Grind only the flax seed you need for the moment. All seeds contain oil and will go rancid.
• Keep flax refrigerated.
• Sprinkle ground up flax over your garden salad.
• Hide flax in your meatloaf.
• Prevent heart attacks with flax seed and it's oil.
• Thicken soups with vegetarian re-fried beans or canned sweet potato.
• Over-cooking the soup vegetables destroys 75% of the nutrients.
• Thickening a chowder, you might want to stick with a cornstarch roux otherwise there will be little specks in the thick soup.