Soup of the Week – Green Soup Surprise and a Side Car

Life is full of surprises, isn’t it?

Just about the time we felt sort of confident about the arrival of spring, temps dropped into the ridiculous range. Despite the warm temps today, the wind blew cold and the forecast says snow again. It may be just “a quick clipper,” but still.

No matter the temperature, though, there is always soup. I haven’t been sharing Soup of the Week too much lately because we’ve been doing a lot of repeats. I suppose I should find something to share in place of those. I’ll work on that. In the meantime, I have a double-feature for you today – a new spin on an old soup and a sandwich to go along.

 

Let’s take a look…I want to share a recipe for our latest version of green soup because it has a bit of a surprise in it. I actually shared green soup with you back in October. If you missed that, you’ll want to click here and read that first. Go ahead. Then come back, please.

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OK, so now that you know what green soup is and you’ve seen my favorite method of preparing it, allow me to introduce you to this new version. This could not have been easier and I did it with ingredients already on hand – that’s my favorite way to go.

This particular version of green soup came out of my head based on other recipes I’ve read or used and, to be quite honest, what was available in the house. I’ve found that most recipes for green soup, or lettuce soup as some call it, are basically the same – onions, vegetable or chicken broth, a whole lot of greens, and some seasonings. Some do cream, others don’t.

This happened because I felt like we were all seriously lacking in vegetable intake and because, well, there was that HUGE container of greens that we didn’t eat fast enough. I also had some extra green things hiding out in the freezer that I wanted to use. This version is even faster and easier than my favorite – under 20 minutes to throw together, start to finish.

Green Soup With A Surprise

What You Need:

• Butter or olive oil (or both) – just a couple of tablespoons to coat the bottom of your soup pot and get your veggies going.
• Onion – one or two cooking onions, depending on size. I used two medium ones. Don’t get too worked up about how you chop – just a rough chop with fairly even sized pieces will do. It all gets blended up later.
• Garlic – a couple of cloves. I think I used two or three. Or six. I just smashed them because of the blending later.
• Broccoli stalks – whatever you have on hand. Cut the woodsy end off then slice or chop them. Again, don’t get too hung up on it – you just need some workable sized pieces so you can cook them a bit before blending later. (These are completely optional, by the way. More on this after the recipe.)
• Greens – a good pile. For this batch, I used somewhere between 6 and 8 cups of mixed baby greens – I believe it was baby kale, baby spinach, and arugula. It was a BIG container. You don’t have to go crazy measuring – whatever pile you have will work. You need at least a couple of decent handfuls, a head or two of whatever.
• Chicken or vegetable stock. I used a quart of organic vegetable broth from a box. I prefer to use my own homemade chicken or vegetable stock, but I didn’t have any that day. You can add or subtract as you like, depending on how thick you like your soup, but I’ve found that a quart usually does a good job for one batch of soup.
• Nutritional yeast – 2-4 tablespoons. I’ve used nutritional yeast in soup recipes before, but then got away from it for a long time. I bought a new bag recently, and have been using it in many things. For more on that, I’m going to send you to my lovely friend Jen’s blog, because she recently did a post all about nutritional yeast.
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• Seasonings to taste. I love lemon and cayenne pepper in my green soups. Nutmeg is also good. I say use whatever makes you happy, but something about the combo of lemon and a bit of cayenne is sort of magic.

What To Do:

• Heat your olive oil or butter in a large stock pot.
• Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until translucent. When they smell amazing, you’re good to go.
• Add the garlic and cook another minute or so – not too much.
• Add the greens and cook until they are wilted just enough.
• Add broth and simmer for a few minutes.
• Puree in batches in blender or Vitamix. You can also use your immersion blender if you prefer. In this case, I didn’t want any bits of veggies to remain – I wanted a completely smooth soup. Other days I’m fine with the tiny bits. It just depends on the day. Mostly, I was all about hiding that broccoli.
• Return the soup to the pot and keep warm until ready to serve. If you want to add some milk or cream here, you can, but it’s not necessary. I did not use any this time.

Serve with any toppings you like. Crumbled feta is delicious. We’ve also had sliced apples, chopped nuts, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and more. I thought about drizzling it with some of that awesome Hollyhock dressing Jen and I have been enjoying, but I didn’t. I did think about it, though.

When I re-heated the soup on night two (always tastes better…), I added some leftover roasted cauliflower that was in the fridge. This was simple – olive oil, crushed garlic, lemon juice, roast. It added just a little something extra to the soup and the lemon and garlic flavors fit right in.

Now, about that broccoli…

The broccoli stalks are completely optional. In fact, they have never been part of the equation for any of my green soups. But if you’re like many people, you don’t always use stalks. So why not freeze them to use later for a broccoli stalk pesto or cream of broccoli soup or even green soup? Great idea.

That idea is probably going to get me in trouble. Let me explain. Zilla and I love broccoli; the Hub won’t touch it. When we have broccoli, he usually has something else in its place. I had a few broccoli stalks leftover from CSA season that I wanted to use for cream of broccoli soup, but I knew the Hub would never eat it.

But what if the broccoli stalks were just hidden in with all the other green stuff in green soup…?

Well, I decided to go for it. While I may not necessarily have gone with full disclosure, he did see the stalks thawing on the counter that afternoon. And he does eat other things in green soup that he wouldn’t normally eat alone. So…

He ate the soup. In fact he ate it more than once. And he never said one word that even remotely sounded like “hey, this tastes like broccoli” or “did you put those broccoli stalks in here?” And he liked it just as well as any other version of green soup I’ve made, so I’m going with the argument that a little bit of sneaky broccoli won’t hurt you.

He’ll probably be irritated that I didn’t tell him up front. But it’s not like I made him eat full-on broccoli soup. And you’d think he’d be sort of used to this by now, right?

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

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Now for the side car recipe. Since my Soup of the Week fans have waited so long for a soup post, here’s one more surprise – a recipe to go with the soup! This also takes just minutes to make, so it’s a great option for a busy weeknight.

We ate this green soup alongside one of my new favorite things – chickpea salad sandwiches. This is a combination of a recipe Jen shared on her blog and one I found a long time ago at Healthy Happy Life I’ve taken the best parts of both recipes, added a bit of my own touch, and offer my version here. It’s a nice alternative to tuna or chicken salad. Flavorful, healthy, light, and yet very satisfying.

Chickpea salad – My Version

What You Need:

• 1 15 or 16 oz. can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas, if you prefer), drained
• 1 small carrot, grated
• 1-2 Tbs. chopped sweet pickles (we use gherkins)
• juice of half a lemon
• 2 Tbs. mayo (or your favorite vegan alternative)
• 1 Tbs. nutritional yeast
• about 1 tsp. garlic powder (more like “cover the top” method for me)
• dash or two of cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste

What To Do:

• Gently mash the chickpeas to the texture you desire. Some recipes will say to use the food processor. It’s a great option, but I honestly can’t be bothered to dirty it up for this quick recipe. I use our hand potato masher and it works perfectly!
• Add the rest of the ingredients, mix, and serve.
• Serve on a bed of greens or with your favorite toasted bread. Zilla has taken it for lunch with whole grain crackers to dip.

Many sites will call this “faux tuna” or “vegan tuna” salad, when made without the mayo. I can’t even pretend it’s tuna. It tastes nothing like tuna. Or chicken. Or egg. It tastes like its own unique and delicious self. All three of us loved it! Kidzilla asks for it in her school lunch and the omnivore Hub found it quite satisfying.

Also, remember that like many other recipes, there are as many ways to spin this as there are cooks to make it. Most people seem to like celery in their tuna or chicken salad and I’ve seen this recipe done with celery. We hate celery. But we always make our tuna salad with sweet pickles, so I figured why not do it here, too? You’ll find your favorite way.

Enjoy!

That’s it for today, friends. Hope this double feature of recipes works well for you. Both can be made completely vegan if you prefer, and both are certainly meatless if you’re looking for one more Lenten Friday meal or a Meatless Monday anytime.

Just a final note for you. With the completion of this post, I will be taking a short leave from the blog and most of the online world for a few days. It is the Christian Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday. Friday also marks the first night of the Jewish Passover. In our multi-denominational home, that means two holidays, several beautiful church/synagogue opportunities, lots of food, and time with family.

I’ll see you all again after Easter when I’ll have some fun conversations with Kidzilla to share, more soup and other spring recipes, and a guest visit from a new blogger friend.

The Hub, Zilla, and I (and the Rotten Cats) wish you all a Happy Easter, Happy Pesach, and happy spring! L’Chaim!