Green Soup! And a New Wooden Spoon!

 So for my first soup-of-the-week I choose "Green Soup-The Original" from Love Soup by Anna Thomas.

 

I decide to "cut" the leafy greens by hand rather than with a knife (I need a better chopping knife anyway). I simply love the process of tearing the slightly spongy spinach and feeling the furls of kale tickle my fingers. The air is pungent with an earthy, slightly thick odor, a perfume that I don't smell as strongly when I chop with a blade. And I use LOTS of greens, though probably slightly less than the recipe calls for because my pot is getting full. I might just need a bigger pot.

I’m hopeful for the flavors— I realize it may be bland without the cayenne but cayenne freaks me out because I'm not adept at knowing just how much to use (yet). I'm thinking I will have to doctor it a bit with lemon (which I always use and love). 

After major ingredients are added to the pot to cook down, I carmelize onions (with minimal crying!) and wait.  Onions take much longer to carmelize than I think they should. But it all smells good so I just go with it.

Once all is cooked I dump everything in the soup pot, immersion blend (I don't know how I ever lived without the immersion blender) and think more about flavor. Being creative is also about being brave, trying new things, so I decide to conquer my fear and open my little bag of cayenne.  Sadly, in the process of either opening or mixing, the cayenne gets up my nose.

Nose running and eyes watering like mad,  I add a hella lot of lemon juice (like a whole squeezy bottle full). The from the pot pre-taste is to die for but I still have to finish with some garnish.

I don't believe in garnish that isn't edible AND delicious. It's just a waste of my palate. So decide on crusty kalamata olive bread and marinated feta in oil on the surface of my very green zingy soup. 

I dig in and this is it, the moment of truth: THE FIRST TASTE.

WOW! Lemony and green (AT says a bowl is = your weekly veg intake) and sooooo good.

Totally worth the red schnoz for this amazing soup.

Rating: A-MA-ZING (with a dash of extra zing!)

 Easy-o-meter: 1(wicked easy)

Time: 2 hours (leisurely washing, chopping, and tasting as I went along)

Taste: Uh-huh, good. (especially with my lemony addition)

PS- Love my wooden spoon? It's gorgeous isn't it? This bamboo beauty is from my favorite kitchen supply shop, Kitchen Witch, located in Jamaica Plain. I go there for all my cookery gadgets and doodads. Y'all should definitely check them out!