Soup’s On!
It’s autumn here, which is my favorite season, and the season that always makes me crave soup. I love soup. I love the simplicity of soup, one meal captured in a bowl, steaming hot, accompanied by a huge hunk of warm bread. And I also love having only one pot to scrub. I grew some sorrel this spring in my front yard and it’s still going pretty strong. I know that sorrel soup is predominantly considered a spring soup however, I did not get a chance to do anything with it until the fall as a result of an onslaught of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and squash that were all desperately vying for my attention and counter space in the summer. To be honest, the only reason I ever made this soup was because I felt that if I planted it and grew it, I should do something with it, otherwise what’s the point. I am so glad that I did. I’ve made this sorrel soup twice so far and it never fails to deliver. I think I should get one more harvest out of it before I start a fresh batch in the greenhouse. The first time I made it I used my potatoes that I had just dug up that very day, so it was all the more satisfying knowing it traveled only a few feet from the garden to the table.
Sorrel or sheep sorrel is a weedy herb that has detoxifying and antioxidant effects, plus it’s loaded with vitamins and minerals, like B, C, D, E, K and P and calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc and beta carotene. It is tart and tangy and pleasantly bitter. It loves cool weather so it can be grown in a greenhouse through the winter and in the early spring as soon as the ground can be worked. It is incredibly easy to grow, you just plant it and harvest it, nothing more. I think the tender, baby leaves taste the best but I use a mixture of both and haven’t noticed a difference in flavor.
Now, on to the recipe:
Sorrel Soup
A bunch of fresh sorrel
6 cups of vegetable stock
salt and pepper to taste
1 pound of potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup of heavy cream
creme fraiche
1. Wash the sorrel and remove any tough ribs from the larger leaves.
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, add the sorrel and stir it until it “melts.”
3. Add the veggie stock, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
4. Add the potatoes, lower the heat to a simmer and cook until potatoes can be pierced with a fork (15 minutes).
5. Add the heavy cream and using an immersion blender, puree the soup until it is creamy.
6. Ladle into bowls and top with a dollop of creme fraiche. (sour cream will work in a pinch)
Enjoy.
Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of research about food. Yes, food. I love food and hate to give up things that I love but, with some of the stuff I have read, I think I may have to stop eating and survive solely on pranna alone. I just finished Food Inc. (the book) and just saw the movie on DVD the other night (I’ve watched it twice now). So, a review will be coming as soon as I can find words to describe why it is such an important film to see at least once. I finished Barbara Kingsolver’s, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life and Michael Pollen’s,The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals not too long ago, so I owe you a couple of book reviews also. Michael Pollen is my new hero. I have some awesome videos that I will be posting soon and are so worth a look-see. I just watched “King Corn” and have been recommending it to everyone I know. It’s really simple and yet the message will change the way you look at food, especially corn. I think the simplest way to bring about a change as far as food is concerned is to read the labels. I cannot stress this enough. Seriously, read the labels, if you can’t pronounce it and you have no idea what it is, put it back on the shelf. We vote with our dollars and in this economy, we really need to take that seriously. Buy organic, buy local, it really should be a mantra when you enter the supermarket. My veggie drawer looks pretty empty these days because I am only trying to buy what’s in season and there isn’t much right now. I am lucky that I froze and canned a lot of stuff from my garden and the CSA this season and I am hoping that gets me through the winter until spring. Of course, we do have the greenhouse and I will discuss that more in a later post. But I digress, send the message that healthy food is what you want and they will be forced to supply it. The best way to send the message is the choices you make as a consumer. Be conscious, always.
