Chickpea and vegetable, tomato and coconut soup

Today there is no energy to make a big enthusiastic cooking extravaganza. Which, having just spent three months at cookery school makes me sad. But, as soon as I'm back on form, cooking extravaganza shall begin! But for now this is what happened in our kitchen...

Part of the cruciferous family (which includes the likes of broccoli) this group of veggies have been and still are receiving huge attention for their anticancer properties. Cabbage, which is considered King, is a nutrient dense, calorie low food with huge nutritional benefits such as Vit C, potassium, Vit B6, Calcium and many more. Perfect for everyday eating or for getting better.

To go with this, a tin of chickpeas, some cooked soy beans from the other night, a trusted can of chopped organic tomatoes and coconut milk. Can I quickly talk about the beloved chickpea?
First off, let's just say this bad boy bean is a big, and I mean BIG friend to us girls with PCOS. Not only is this little fella a good fibre source but it improves blood sugar levels which is great for us who have a hard time with insulin and sugar control. At a GI (glycemic index) of 42 and a GL (glycemic load) of 6.3 this is one bean that we should be eating more of.

Not forgetting the usual turmeric, salt and pepper of course. Just incase you're not aware of how good this member of the ginger family is for you (I'm talking turmeric now)…here goes. In Chinese and Indian medicine it has been and still is, a key component. The root itself is used to help a number of symptoms such as flatulence, jaundice, menstrual difficulties, toothache, bruising, the list literally goes on and on. It's also a great anti-inflammatory. In a number of experimental studies the yellow pigment, called Curcumin, has demonstrated significant anti-inflammatory activities. A big one though, is that curcumin exerts huge antioxidant effects and studies have shown positive findings towards fighting cancer.

So what did I do? Well simply put all the ingredients together and heated them up to a rolling boil. Now one little mistake I made was that the coconut milk I used was sweet and thank heavens I had to spoon the stuff out so by the time I realised I had only put in 2 spoonfuls (I'm blaming being ill for that mistake!). But if I had been using the non sweet coconut milk version, I would have used the following quantities:

1 tin of chopped (preferably organic) tomatoes
1 tin of unsweetened coconut milk
1 tin of chickpeas (dried would be fine too, just remember to cook them first!)
4 tbsp of soy beans cooked or frozen
2 big handfuls of coriander leaves
2 tsps of turmeric
1 tsps of cayenne
salt and pepper
and 3 leaves of red cabbage chopped finely.