The best part about the weather getting colder is the chance to eat soup for the next… 5 or 6 months. Sure you can eat soup in the summer, but that’s just a waste of fresh and wonderful produce.
I was browsing through the Moosewood cookbook and came across this recipe. I’m a huge fan of soup and some things just sound so appealing. There are about five basic ingredients in the recipe: Peas, Spinach, Onions, Potatoes and Coconut Milk. The rest of the ingredients are spices. And really, what doesn’t love the idea of peas, spinach, onions and potatoes?
As I was cooking my mom wandering into the kitchen because it smelled soooo good. She was sniffing around asking what meat was going into the soup. NONE!! Did you use broth? she wondered. NOPE!! At that moment skepticism set in and she walked away in silence.
For a moment I doubted myself, would the soup be flat without broth? But I soldiered on.
You start the soup by boiling about 4 cups of potatoes in about 4 to 5 cups water with some salt and about 8 cloves of garlic. While the potatoes are cooking away you sautee about 4 cups of onions in oil. When the onions are soft you add the spices. I used the usual suspects that you would use in a curry: turmeric, cumin, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, cayenne and black pepper. At the same time you also throw in some grated ginger.
* the other day i bought a microplane and it has changed my life. perfect for ginger *
After you mix the onions with the spices you add about a cup of the potato water and let the onions cook for about 5 minutes. When that’s done add everything to the potatoes and then stir in the peas and spinach. Bring to a boil and then simmer until the spinach becomes wilted. Stir in a can of coconut milk.
And then my favourite part… the immersion blender. I just discovered about 2 weeks ago that I have one and this was my inaugural use. You can totally use a regular blender to puree the soup but the immersion blender makes it so much easier.
The recipe makes A LOT of soup. I portioned out two bowls to take to work this week. Froze 4 portions and STILL had some leftover. Not a problem though because the soup is kind of amazing. I’m going to love defrosting some of this in January and recapturing the goodness. So far the Moosewood recipes have been pretty good.
Now it’s time to think about what feasts to whip up this weekend. Oh how I love the weekend…
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