Green ruccola soup

Reading my previous recipes, you’ve probably guessed that I’m a sucker for specials. (Emphasis on delicious specials 🙂 ) You might think you’re prepared for anything… Well, then you’ll probably find out that you’re not, after you’ve watched this soup -and possibly made it.

The soup below is a real character. With its poison green colour, unique flavours and interesting ingredients, it takes a completely different path than you would expect from a soup.

The soup was created when I bought a can of ruccola salad. This is not really surprising, especially as I am quite fond of this leafy plant with its unique flavour, but this time I didn’t use it all up: in fact, as it was a slightly different type of food for the weekend than I had first thought, I was afraid that I would “get stuck” with the ruccola…which I would have regretted. So, after some background research, I started experimenting.

Green ruccola soup

2 medium potatoes, peeled
3 spring onions (with greens)
1 small head onion
3 cloves garlic
about 6-10kg spinach (chopped)
about 100g ruccola leaves..save some leaves for decoration
2dl white wine
1.5dl cooking cream
salt, pepper
1l vegetable stock

First, put the vegetable soup (from stock) on to simmer. In the meantime, peel and dice the potatoes, and when the soup is boiling, throw them in. Cook for about 5-8 minutes until completely tender. Meanwhile, chop the spring onions into rings, the onions into small pieces, the spinach and the ruccola into coarse pieces. Once the potatoes are cooked, add them, grate in the garlic and bring the soup to the boil, seasoning with a little salt and pepper (you will have the chance to adjust it at the end). Once it’s boiled down a little (a few minutes), take out the stick blender (here’s the fun part) and blend the soup until it’s completely smooth. It probably won’t be perfectly creamy, but the ingredients will be small enough not to bother you. If all has gone well so far, it should be an angry green colour by now. Once you’ve got over the initial surprise, put it back on the heat and add the wine, then the cream. Mix well and taste – you can add salt and pepper if you like. To serve, garnish with the ruccola leaves cut into strips.

First publication: 14th March, 2009