Green Goddess Soup

Sunday night found me digging around for an easy recipe at the last minute.  I came across Green Goddess Soup in In the Small Kitchen and was instantly sold.  While I didn’t have swiss chard or zucchini, I did have kale and broccoli.  Who doesn’t love broccoli soup?  Broccoli is also on the list of things the landlord will eat, so it was a no-brainer.  As for the kale, what he doesn’t know won’t kill him, right?

Related tangent: I had no appreciation for blended soups.  I’ve made dozens of soups that are supposed to be fully or partly blended and have skipped the step every time.  Who wants to deal with the hassle and mess?  I blended this soup because I knew damn well the landlord wouldn’t touch it if I didn’t.  Kale?  Cooked spinach?  What are those small pea-shaped things that resemble beans?  Split peas?!  You put something from the legume family in this soup and you expect me to eat it??  You follow.  You can be damn sure I blended the soup.

And HOLY SHIT.  Blended soup is so much more than just blended.  It’s like the flavors meld.  Instantly.  That whole “tastes better the next day” bullshit was just sped up by 24 hours.  And it’s piping hot and fresh.  Consider this a life lesson WELL learned.  My soups will no longer be average.  Seeing hunks of vegetables and beans is all well and good but holy schnikees what a difference blending makes.  The flavors better complement each other; everything pops.  My mind taste buds are BLOWN.  Oh, the error of my ways!

Really, this soup should be called Kitchen Sink Soup.  Because that’s what I put into it.  Four stalks of fresh kale, a small head of broccoli, half an onion, veggie stock, spinach, water, a splash of milk, lemon juice, paprika, and a generous fistful of cilantro.  Not in that order.

First I sauteed the onion in two tablespoons of butter.  Then I added two and a half (perhaps a smidge more) cups of vegetable stock and a cup of water.  Cleaned and tore the kale, chopped the broccoli, and tossed both in.  Then I thought hey, some paprika might be nice.  But the paprika never shakes evenly so I popped off the top and gently tapped and a giant chunk fell in.  Whoops.  So let’s say a teaspoon or so.  No harm no foul; I feel like paprika is one of those things that is rarely detected anyway.  Then I realized we have loads of fresh spinach, so I added a good fistful or two of that.  Then the split peas popped into my head.  Genius.  So in went 1/3 cup of those badboys.

I let it all simmer for 10-15 minutes or so, until the peas were sufficiently softened.  (In hindsight, should I make this again, the peas will go in first and get a 5-10 minute head start.)  Note I didn’t add any salt, as the stock is plenty salty.  Once everything was cooked, it came off the heat and the lemon juice (about 1/3 of a lemon; I’m cheap and my soup wasn’t very big) and a generous “splash” (three tablespoons?) of milk (subbed for cream) were added.  As was a giant fistful of cilantro.  Then the landlord eagerly blended it all for me (the man loves him some immersion blending).

I topped it off with a heaping dollop of Greek yogurt, a drizzle of good green olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a shake of both paprika and cayenne.  Fanfuckingtastic.  I tell you what.  I licked that bowl silly.

If only our bowls were white.  Turns out green on green isn’t particularly photogenic.