Spinach and Blue Cheese Soup
Spinach and Blue Cheese Soup. It makes me feel like a million bucks just thinking about it! Spinach has so many nutritional benefits; it’s an original member of the Superfoods group, contributing to shiny hair, a healthy heart, knee joints that don’t creak, healthy eyes, strong bones and great skin. The calcium from the cheese is a double bonus for those knee joints that don’t creak, and using fresh vegetable stock means you’ve got all the extra benefits from all the veg that made up your vegetable stock.
This easy, nutritious Spinach and Blue Cheese soup ticks all the boxes; not only does it contain Superfoods, but it’s very easy and freezes well. A bag of spinach, some blue cheese and a few other ingredients, and Presto! A fabulous soup that works really well for lunch with a lovely side salad, or serve as a starter. We enjoy this soup as a starter for a generous serving of steamed mussels– you’ll want the Parmesan and Herb Breadsticks to soak up all the juices – this combination is super healthy and tastes fantastic accompanied by a very large glass of chardonnay! Remove the bacon and this is a vegetarian soup; replace the doube cream with vegan greek yoghurt and this is a vegan soup- how versatile!
I usually make a large pot of this soup and batch freeze it in portion sizes; if you are doing this, omit the bacon and the cream before freezing and add these ingredients after you have re-heated the soup and just before you serve.
Enjoy!
Spinach Soup
Equipment
- 1 Electronic digital scales
- 1 Blender hand blender
- 1 Small fry pan
- 1 Medium sauce pan
Ingredients
- 600 ML Good quality vegetable stock, divided 2 1/2 cups
- 1 small Onion, white or brown. Peeled and quartered about 100 - 120 grams
- 2 small/medium Clove of garlic, skin removed about 4 gram each
- 80 - 100 grams Blue Cheese at room temperature I use 6 - 8 Tablespoons OR to taste
- Salt and white pepper to taste
- 125 grams Sliced, fresh mushrooms of choice a couple of handfuls if you don't use scales
- Knob of butter optional
- 2 Rashers Streaky Bacon optional
- 300 Grams Fresh spinach, washed 10 ounce bag
- ⅛ teaspoon Ground Nutmeg to taste
- ⅛ teaspoon Ground Ginger to taste
- 30 - 45 ML Double Cream 2 - 3 Tablespoons [optional]
Instructions
- Pour 400 ml [1 3/4 cup] stock into the medium saucepan. Add the onion, garlic and blue cheese. Simmer over medium heat until the onion has softened through, about 12 - 15 minutes.
- Whilst the onion and garlic are cooking, put the knob of butter into a small fry pan and saute the mushrooms until just cooked through- they do better if they are not too soggy. Remove from the pan and set aside. Using the same pan, cook the bacon until crispy. Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen roll, then crumble the bacon and set aside.
- When the onion is soft, add the fresh spinach, the salt and white pepper to taste, stirring the mixture until the spinach is completely wilte. Remove from the heat and blend the soup thoroughly, then return to the saucepan and stir the mixture. [Note 1] Add the ginger and nutmeg. At this point, the mixture will be quite thick. Using the 200 ML [shy of 1 cup] extra stock, slowly add the liquid to the soup to the desired consistency [Note 2] Check your seasoning.
- To serve, ladle the soup into bowls, add a dollop of the cream and stir slightly to create a "swirl" on top, then add the crumbled bacon and serve.
