Everyday Healing Broth: A restorative soup made for cold season

Inspired by the salty, sweet and sour flavours of a Thai soup, this nourishing broth is packed with turmeric, chilli and lime, perfect for perking you up in the winter months.

Thailand's famous tom yum soup has a mysterious history that no one can quite agree on. Known to have existed since at least the 14th Century, some say it was created by the royal chefs of the Ayutthaya kingdom to showcase the region's extraordinary local cuisine, while others say it was devised by a Thai boatman who added lemongrass, lime leaves and shrimp paste to a hot-boiled pot of soup on his way to do business in China. Others still call it a dish made by rural farmers awash with herbs and spices. No matter how it originated, it has become a staple in Thai cuisine, and it takes on a new form in this recipe for a healing broth, created by South African plant-based food writer Samantha Dormehl. 

"There's something so incredible about a tom yum soup for me," she says. "It's in the balance of all those gorgeous Thai flavours; the salty, sour, sweet, astringent combination. It brings back a food memory of sitting at a restaurant on a beach in Thailand with my feet in the sand, eating an insane veggie tom yum soup with big chunks of mushroom. It had coconut milk in it with spicy tom yum paste and then roasted peanuts on top. And it was just unbelievable." 

Dormehl was inspired to create a plant-based broth incorporating nutritious ingredients that is perfect for winter – and she calls it "Everyday Healing Broth". 

"It's got a beautiful combination of ginger, turmeric and chilli, which are all incredibly healing in their own way," she says. "Ginger is warming and nourishing; turmeric's got anti-inflammatory properties; and chilli is super high in vitamin C. Together they give you that feeling of clearing the airways, opening your chest and your sinuses. You have this really zinging feeling when you eat a broth like this: it's so good it almost makes you feel high!"

Dormehl works as a recipe creator and menu consultant from her home, a smallholding on the Garden Route in South Africa where she grows her own produce and works with plant medicine. Her book The Wanderlust Kitchen, released on 11 February 2025, focuses on restorative, plant-based recipes from around the world, and, with beautiful photography, draws on her skills as a photojournalist as well as her experiences collecting recipes from her travels in Thailand, India, Belgium, Nicaragua, Hong Kong and California.

"My plant-based food journey started in India," she says. "The vegetarian food in India was absolutely mind-blowing. And I just felt so incredible eating that way: I felt lighter and I was doing a lot of yoga and I felt very connected to my body. After that, it just naturally continued."

Her recipes take readers around the world, and include Salsa Macha, a thick salsa that originates in Veracruz along the Gulf of Mexico coast; a Jackfruit Tostada dish inspired by time spent in Sri Lanka; and Kitchari, an ayurvedic dal dish straight from India. Beside rainbow-hued images of her dishes, the book is full of inspirational travel photography, from the red hills of Hampi, India, to the foaming surf of a Nicaraguan beach, and suggestions of mantras and meditations to aid focus. All the recipes are vegan, but it's not a recipe book only for those who don't eat meat, as she explains.

"Plant-based menus have just got so much more creative in the last 10 years," she says. "I think that even if people aren't eating a strictly vegetarian or vegan diet, they are looking to incorporate more plants into their diet and not feeling they have to eat meat with every meal. There's a lot more awareness around the role of food in health, and the need to incorporate whole foods and lots of colour."

Dormehl found the benefits of health-giving food when her partner tragically passed away after being struck by lightning. Following this experience, and an episode of kidney stones, she started to look at how food could help on her healing journey, mentally and physically. She views food as medicine, and every meal as a chance to nourish and heal her body, or the opposite.

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"On my travels, whenever I ate something amazing, I was either thinking: how can I make an incredible plant-based version of this?" she says, "Or how can I change this to make it even better for you, and more medicinal. A lot of this approach started with the Ayurvedic principles I encountered in India." 

While many of her recipes are inspired by travel and dinners in far-flung destinations, Dormehl consciously created the cookbook as something that readers can follow wherever they are in the world. 

"One of the main things I wanted to do in the book was give you the recipe and say, if you don't have this, you could use that. Or it doesn't matter, leave it out, it will still be delicious," she says, noting that recipes include interchangeable, accessible ingredients.

"This soup is super busy and alive," she says, of her Everyday Healing Broth. "And it's super simple. It takes about 25 minutes and once you've fried the ginger, turmeric, garlic and scallions in coconut oil and miso paste, you just simmer most of the ingredients. Some mushrooms go in there, then radish and lime or lemon juice plus veggie stock.

"Right at the end, add the greens for that super vibrant green deliciousness. It really is something you can make at the beginning of the week and have to sip on through the week. It's so simple, but really delicious and nourishing."

Everyday Healing Broth recipe with turmeric for inflammation

by Samantha Dormehl

Serves 2

"This is the perfect everyday broth to sip as an immune booster and detoxifier. When you start to feel those familiar aches and pains of the flu, this broth will hold and uplift you."

Method:

Step 1

In a pan over a medium heat, fry the miso paste, ginger, turmeric, garlic and spring onions/scallions in the coconut oil for 1-2 minutes until fragrant. 

Step 2

Add the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes. 

Step 3

Add all remaining ingredients except the spinach/pak choi/bok choy leaves and cover with the vegetable stock. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 20 minutes, adding the spinach or pak choi/bok choy for the last 3 minutes so that it maintains its lovely green colour. 

Step 4

Serve with toasted peanuts, fresh mint, purple cabbage and sauerkraut. 

Recipe republished with permission from The Wanderlust Kitchen by Samantha Dormehl (Nourish Books).

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