In this solo cooking tutorial, Jodie Louise demonstrates how to make a miso soup specifically designed to support the ovulation (follicular) phase of the menstrual cycle. She begins by explaining the hormonal context: during ovulation estrogen peaks, energy rises, and the body benefits from foods that balance estrogen, support progesterone preparation, and promote gut health. She then walks through each ingredient—spiralized zucchini (high fiber for liver detox), organic baby spinach (pesticide‑free to avoid endocrine disruptors), broccoli (contains DIM to modulate estrogen), three seaweeds (hijiki, arame, wakame) rich in minerals that aid progesterone synthesis, tofu and flaxseeds (phytoestrogens that can buffer estrogen levels), pumpkin seeds (zinc for hormone production), miso (probiotic and gut‑supporting), garlic (prebiotic), coconut aminos (essential amino acids for vegans), and unfortified nutritional yeast (B12, umami flavor). She details preparation steps: spiralizing zucchini, chopping vegetables, boiling seaweed, cooking tofu briefly, adding miso and garlic, and finishing with ground seed‑yeast mixture. Throughout she stresses using organic, non‑GMO products to avoid endocrine‑disrupting chemicals, and offers practical tips such as adjusting water volume, cooking times, and optional additions like mushrooms for vitamin D (or getting sun exposure). The video ends with plating, garnish of fresh coriander and seed topping, and a brief personal scene of Jodie in Bali, reinforcing the seasonal, mindful eating vibe. The tutorial blends culinary instruction with menstrual‑cycle‑specific nutrition science.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Jodie Louise, and I'm really excited today because I'm going to be doing a recipe that supports the ovulation phase of your cycle. So during this time, you're going to be feeling more playful, flirty, basically because your body is releasing an egg and then it's hunting for sperm. So it's no surprise that you probably feel more energized, you wanna go out, be more social. But during this time, it's really critical to be eating foods that support the healthy release of the egg and things that nourish the body to be maintaining and balancing your estrogen levels. So foods high in fiber is really, really critical for supporting the liver, and lots of greens and yummy things like that. So one of my favorite things to have around this cycle is to have a miso soup. So that's what we're making today. So I look forward to sharing this with you. So first what we'll do is we'll prepare the zucchini. So we're going to do this spiralized. Zucchini is really great to put in the soup as it's filled with fiber, which supports the body for releasing excess things through the bowel. So I have a spiralizer here, and you need to cut off the ends because otherwise it won't go into the hole. So you can get many different types of spiralizers, and you can get them really cheap off Etsy and Amazon. So I cut it into 2 pieces, and you insert it on the very middle. There's like a spike in the middle here, and you push it down. And then we push it together. And then super easy actually. You just— there's different settings on this one, like thin, thick, and you just spiral it through. And this makes the soup really filling and yummy. I love zucchini. You can also just use these on their own and make sauces, which is great. So I'm just making enough for me today, so I'm going to use half a zucchini, but it depends how many people you're making the soup for or how hungry you are. As you can see, we've got beautiful spirals here, and it's up to you if you want to keep them long or if you want to break them up a bit. I like to break them up a bit. I don't like it to be too messy, otherwise I get soup splattering everywhere. I've also got some delicious spinach. This is baby organic spinach. It's really important to be getting as much organic produce as possible. So if you are having anything within your body that has chemicals, pesticides, that's all endocrine disruptors. And anything that interrupts the endocrine system is basically gonna cause imbalance to your hormones. So I really, really recommend as many foods as organic as you possibly can. So, yeah, opting for organic produce is key. See, I've got this beautiful spinach here, which I'm just going to add into my mix. And I've got some broccoli. So broccoli is amazing. Broccoli is basically filled with something called DIM. And DIM helps balance the estrogen in the body. So if you're low estrogen, it's going to help bring it up. And if you're high estrogen, it's going to bring it down. So I'm just going to cut this into small pieces. I like to keep a few like chunky, chunky bits. I love broccoli so much. Okay, so try and get them all even sizes so when you're cooking, they're going to cook at the same rate. And with broccoli, some people like it crunchy and other people like it more soft. So depending on how you like it, cook it to your desired taste preferences. Okay, I've got some seaweeds here. I've got 3 different kinds. I've got— I can never say it properly— hijiraki, I think, arame, and wakame. So seaweeds are really beautiful for the body because they're so high in essential minerals that are absolutely critical to help with progesterone levels. So progesterone is what's produced in the second phase of your cycle. So if you don't have enough progesterone, you get Cramps, PMS, and uncomfortability. So it's really critical in this cycle to be preparing the body ready. Pumpkin seeds that we're also going to be using are really high in zinc as well as the seaweed. So it's really great to pack this in. If you don't like it, it's a great time of your cycle, as I said before, to give it a go and see what you think. So the seaweed I'm going to— it's hard right now. And I've boiled some water. So I'm going to put that into the pan. And we're going to get that cooking. And basically, it's going to expand. So you want to cook it through until it's cooked well. So we'll do that now. Thank you. So tofu is what's called a phytoestrogen. So tofu in the body is actually going to mimic estrogen. And what that means is when it goes in the body, it's a slightly lower amount of estrogen, and it's going to go into the body and then it's going to Either lower estrogen levels or it's going to increase them, depending on what's needed. So it's actually there to balance. Flaxseeds are also another wonderful phytoestrogen that are great to have around ovulation, 'cause this is when your estrogen levels are at the highest and they really need support to balance. But when having soy, it's absolutely critical to be getting non-GMO and organic. If you can't get them, I recommend leaving it out altogether. So I'm gonna cut this. Into small little chunks so you just get a little bite-sized piece. So I like to do it in little cubes. And the tofu generally needs to be cooked for 2 to 5 minutes depending on how you like the texture. I'm going to put that in with the spinach. And the zucchini noodles and get that all over here. So putting in the broccoli. Putting it just on. And low heat. I'm just going to keep the spinach and zucchini just until the broccoli has softened a little bit. But I'm going to add in the miso. Give that a good stir. So the miso is basically going to give the soup lots of yummy flavour, and it's also a beautiful thing for the gut, and it's really good to support the gut at this phase of your cycle. And I'm also going to add in some garlic. Some people are sensitive to garlic, so if you're someone that can't eat If you don't digest garlic well and it makes you feel uncomfortable, then leave it out. But it is great for added flavour. And garlic's also a prebiotic as well, which basically supports the body to absorb the miso probiotics. So there's prebiotics and probiotics. So if you have a prebiotic, it supports the body for taking on the probiotic. Okay. So I'm just kind of cutting it up really, really small. I don't have a crusher and you don't need one. Okay, you can see that the seaweed is starting to expand and the broccoli is getting nice and soft. You don't want to overcook the broccoli though, so just keep monitoring that. And I'm actually going to add a little bit more water. As well. Feels like it needs a little bit more in there. There we go. Much better. So all of the greens that are going in here are really great for folate, fibre, and also calcium. And what I usually like to do is actually add mushrooms, but I couldn't get any today that were organic, so I've left the mushrooms out. But the mushrooms are high in vitamin D, which is also critical at this phase of your cycle. So what I'm going to do instead is I'm going to make sure that I get enough time in the sun. Being in the sun also helps you absorb vitamin D, which will help me absorb the calcium. So that's really critical too. So I just wanted to add that mushrooms are a great addition to add in. I'm now going to add in the tofu. The tofu looks really good in there as well. I love how it looks. It does. Makes it look delicious. So coconut aminos are great because they have all of the essential amino acids. And amino acids are the building blocks to protein, which are in meat. So if you're a vegan or plant-based, then I really recommend adding coconut aminos into your diet. So while that's cooking, I've got flaxseeds and pumpkin seeds. So flaxseeds, as I mentioned before, are a great phytoestrogen, and the pumpkin seeds are a great source of zinc. So this combination of seeds is really beautiful for the follicular and the ovulation phase of the cycle. So flaxseeds on their own, just as they are, 'cause they're really hard to digest and they actually become really gelatinous, and they can be used as like an egg substitute. But what I do is I actually grind the seeds and I sprinkle them And sprinkle them on the soup at the end. And I like to put it with some unfortified nutritional yeast. And the reason it's unfortified is it means that the vitamins and minerals aren't added, so it's more natural. And it's not active yeast, so it's not like a yeast that you shouldn't be having for your body. It's actually really high in B12, which is great. So what I do is I grind them all together. I've got a coffee grinder. Seeds in there. And we just give it a grind. And it forms a really nice grind, which is delicious. It tastes super good. It's kind of got a cheesy, umami-type flavour. So we'll save that for afterwards. Just going to give this a stir. And that's looking good now. So I'm going to turn the heat off. And I'm just going to mix through the spinach and the zucchini. I don't want it to be cooked too much. And just give that a mix through. So I've turned off the heat. So this will just soften it a little bit. As you can see, it's a nice thick miso soup. You can add more water if you want. It depends on the flavor, how many of you that there are. But I prefer to start with less water and add more if I need to. I'm just going to leave that there to soften for a few moments. Oh, look at that. It looks so healthy. So now that the soup is ready, I've got a bowl prepared and I'm going to fill Scoop some in. What I like to do is get a nice scoop of a mixture of different seaweeds and then get some of the broth. Delicious. And I like to top with a little bit of fresh coriander, and it's really good to have something raw at the start of meals because this is fully cooked. I like to have something a little bit raw with it. It helps with digestion. And I'm just going to sprinkle a little bit of the seeds on the top. Just sprinkle them on. And there we have it, a delicious miso soup. The ovulation phase is a beautiful time to try new things. Get out and about and, yeah, even go on a date, record some video content. The sun's actually starting to set here and I'm looking out at the beautiful rice fields here at my home in Bali. And I'm just gonna try a bit of this soup. Mmm. It's so packed with flavour. So good. Yum.
