It appears the online recipe for this soup has gone “poof”!
Nova Scotia is finally warming up a little, I even have mystery plants starting to sprout in my garden. When I read Tori‘s suggestion that the next foodie club challenge should be a baking one because soon summer will be here (which I totally agree with and am contemplating we do a group cookie bake) I realized that if I wanted to make one last soup before it warms up I better get to it!
I had picked up some beautiful red swiss chard and spinach (which you can see above in my salad spinner thingy) and then saw a great recipe using both ingredients in a soup on the Canadian Food Network Television show Christine Cushing Live called Creamy Greens Soup. With the weather warming up and fresher foods coming to the grocery store, I am more dedicated than ever to getting healthy veggies in my diet so I thought, what the heck? Let’s make one last soup!
What I like about Christine’s recipe is that it is a very traditional soup, a great one for beginner cooks. First, you sautee onions, carrots and celery which are the aromatics of the soup. Christine uses leeks as well but I didn’t have any so I skipped it. After ten minutes you add the garlic for a little while and then add the herbs and stock. Bring to a boil on medium heat and then she added some rice but I added a chopped potato to thicken the soup with its starch. Because these vegetables are a lot tougher than the greens, you let them cook for 25 minutes and THEN you add the swiss chard and spinach until wilted. From there you blend it up (make sure to cover the blender with a dish towel because soups tend to explode in there) and then add some cream.
I used a light cream but then made up for it with a dollop of light sour cream. This was a beauitful soup. So earthy, deep and lovely. You could feel the vitamins in it and it was so flavourful. In order to absorb the iron, I made a smoothie with lots of vitamin C to go with it to make sure all those vitamins and minerals in the soup don’t go to waste.
Next I may explore the world of cold soups! I think soups are one of the greatest treats in life. They are nourishing and loving to the body, all that earthy goodness broken down into its pure essence for us to savour without guilt. Soup is a beautiful food.
Soup is one of my favorite things! I made a homemade soup for the first time last week in my chefs class. I was so surprised at how wast it was.
This soup looks amazing.
Yummy! This sounds really good. I was afraid of soups until fairly recently. Now, I’ve gotten pretty good at them. I particularly like my chicken noodle! 🙂
I like the idea of a cookie challenge – I’d like to see if I can find (and figure out) a recipe without sugar!
Yummy. Very good for you I bet! Don’t you love eating things that your body loves:) I am a fan of swiss chard, in fact I picked up some seed packets for it yesterday. We are on the same wave length. I did a soup post today too. Carrot Ginger Lemon! I had it for lunch and it was delicious. Quite unusual.
Way to go Tori! Soup is so simple and so comforting.
Tammy, there’s nothing to be afraid of, it’s a very simple formula and it sounds like you got it no prob, chicken noodle soup?! Yummy!
So glad you like the cookie challenge idea, I will get to work on finding some recipes without sugar. May have to use Splenda but maybe not.
AliceinParis, what’s your favourite thing to do with swiss chard? I only know how to make this soup and frying it up with garlic. That soup sounds fantastic!
That soup looks really yummy! Can’t wait to see your explorations of cold soup. They are so nice and refreshing for the summer months. We only make one – gazpacho. We make it with enough garlic to knock you on your butt and it is sooooo good!
I had my first cold berry soup on a cruise and I thought I had gone to heaven! I’d like to try gazpacho, never have before. Sounds awesome and I looooove garlic!