This was actually amazing. It was thick and creamy and surprisingly delicious. It was also incredibly good for me. All of these things together make for a perfect lunch.There are a grand total of 3 ingredients, whichy is all you need if your broth is good.
Ingredients:
6 cups broth (I used homemade shrimp broth, but anything with a bit of flavour and not too much sodium would be fine. Just please don't use knorr or anything with msg or ingredients you can't pronounce. Homemade is best but I'll let you off the hook as long as it's corn syrup-free and organic)
6 medium potatoes (or 4 large, or 8 small, or however many give you the consistency you want when pureed. You can always add more stock, but you can't add more potatoes once the soup is puréed, so err on the side of more potatoes)
1 bunch red swiss chard (6 or so large branches. Green swiss chard is also great. Beet greens would be okay too, and spinach, but spinach is a pain to clean, and using frozen at this time of year is just sad)
1. Heat up the broth in a large pot over high heat. While this is heating, peel the potatoes and cut them into similarly-sized chunks. They should be the same size so they cook in the same amount of time, but since it's going to be puréed it's really not a big deal if some overcook while you're waiting for the big ones to soften. Now add the potatoes to the broth (once it's boiling) and reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes.
2. Wash the chard and tear the green leaves from the white stem. Then hack the stem into chunks so it'll fit in the pot. Set the leaves and stems aside in different bowls.
3. Test the potatoes with a fork and if they pieces come apart when you try to stab it, it's more than done. If the fork goes in easily, lift the potato out of the broth, run it under cold water, and then take a small bite. If it's soft enough for you, it's done.
4. Now add the stems to the pot. Let them cook just for about 3 minutes, and then add the leaves. Let them cook for about 2 minutes. Take the pot off the heat. You don't want the leaves to overcook. The stems take a bit more time than the leaves so put them in first. Yes, you could put the stems and leaves in together but then you end up killing a bunch of nutrients in the leafy greens. The rule for vegetables is: "The less cooking time, the better", but this doesn't necessarily include raw food...that's another story for another day, but suffice it to say there are more nutrients in vegetables when they're not cooked, but for some vegetables the body needs them to be cooked to properly absorb the nutrients.
Anyway,
5. Add the soup in batches to a blender or food processor. I lifted the leaves out with kitchen tongs and added a bit of broth for the first few batches, just so I wasn't pouring the whole pot into a small blender, which would result in spilling soup everywhere. It's happened before, and is very sad indeed. As each batch gets puréed, pour it into a large bowl (or two...or three if your bowls are small). Because I did batches of greens first and then finished with batches of potato and broth, when I poured the batches together they got a beautiful marbled texture of smooth potato and luscious greens, like in the photo above. It makes a great presentation, so a perfect first course for a dinner party. Serving a big bowl of green soup is significantly less attractive and gourmet, even if it is exactly the same soup. I suppose it's still better than blue soup, but I'd settle for blue if Colin Firth was involved.
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