Five foods you can cook when you have a cold

Succumbing to a cold is one of those things that sets you off balance completely. A running nose, fatigue, coughing and a sore throat are all unpleasant symptoms. Growing up, my mum would say that the food we ate was meant to be our medicine. Aside from taking a spoon of honey daily, here are some meals that kept us away from numerous antibiotics intake during the flu season.

Carrot soup

Carrots are great at boosting your vision and in relieving flu symptoms. Cook the carrots until soft enough to puree. Once done, put some butter in a pan, add diced onions and allow to cook. Then pour in the pureed carrots, heavy cream and salt and pepper to taste.  Top it up with some dhania and serve.

Pumpkin mash

One of the beauties of pumpkin as an ingredient is how much you can do with it. To prepare this beautiful mash, boil some pumpkin with some Irish potatoes. Treat this dish like mashed potatoes. Strain the water once cooked and mash it up, adding some cream or milk to make your pumpkin mash creamy and yummy.

Chicken soup

The perfect chicken soup requires some chicken stock made from boiling chicken. To make the soup fry some onions in a skillet and add some pureed tomatoes, heavy cream, frozen peas, chicken chunks and the stock. Bring this to a boil, adding salt and pepper to taste. There you have it, a comforting meal to nurse a cold.

Fresh green beans and garlic

Garlic is a superfood that helps relieve colds. It can be added to a steam bath to make a great inhaler. You can also make a stir fry by cooking green beans and garlic and this can relieve the flu symptoms. Add a drizzle of orange juice for that tangy taste and sizzle.

Kale with lemon squeeze

Kale or sukuma wiki is rich in iron and magnesium. This can aid in making the flu days feel shorter. Magnesium helps reduce inflammation and soreness in the body. Cook your sukuma wiki and add a squeeze of lemon for a Vitamin C  boost.

Include these foods in your diet and they will not only help relieve cold and flu symptoms, but they will also help keep these illnesses away.

?