Eat Your Greens Soup

Soggy bags of salad in the bottom of the fridge are very sad. Much better to buy a whole lettuce, they last longer and are much cheaper. And you can make the rather nice green soup if you think you won’t get to eat the whole lettuce raw. Serves 4

Ingredients

1 medium lettuce (washed and roughly chopped)
1 onion (or leek or shallots or spring onions, chopped finely)
2 tbsp butter (or oil if you want this to be vegan)
1.5 litres veg stock
Salt and pepper
Herbs to suit (mint, parsley, basil or tarragon all work well)

Method

Start by heating the butter or oil in a large pan, add the onion and cook gently for at least 10 minutes until softened.

Add 1tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper and the chopped lettuce. Stir well to let the lettuce wilt. Add the stock and bring to a boil.
Add the peas and simmer for 3 minutes.

Take off heat and add the herbs of your choice. Use a stick blender to whizz the soup into a gorgeous green liquid. If you
don’t have a stick blender, a potato masher and then a sieve can do the same job, though it takes a bit longer.

Enhancements

Particularly good with those croutons you made from stale bread.

For extra richness you can swirl in some cream before serving.

Top tips

Always remove the stalks from kale – it’s much nicer to eat.

If you have fresh spinach or greens, you might not eat in time, wash them, remove stalks, chop (we use scissors) and then put in a bowl. Pour over boiling water and then immediately drain into a sieve or colander and run cold water over them. Then squeeze out the water and freeze by spreading out on a plate. Once frozen you can pop in a plastic bag in single pieces rather than a block. Easier to use!