Spinach & Leek Soup

 

Leek was something I’ve only read about being used in soups. Every time I see a recipe which had leek in it, I’d imagine an onion like taste for a spring-onion like vegetable and carry on reading the recipe. Until last week.

Most recipes I read about leeks in soups also had spinach leaves in it. I leafed through my new soup cook book , and came across some without spinach too, but that was for another day. Here is a recipe I concocted , with some inspiration from one of the recipes from this book -

Ingredients

Leek – 1 stalk, washed and cut into 1 inch wide pieces
Spinach leaves – 1 bunch, washed and chopped
Onion – Medium sized , chopped fine
Garlic cloves – 4-5, chopped/crushed
Sage – 1 tbsp
Olive oil – 1 tbsp
Sea salt – To taste
Boiling water – 1 cup

Instructions

In a deep pan, heat the olive oil, and sauté the crushed/chopped garlic. Once the entire kitchen is filled up with the aroma of this sautéed garlic, add onions to this, and sauté this too.

When the onions are close to getting pink, add sage and sauté a bit more. Now add the leek, and the spinach leaves, and sauté them all together. At this point, the oil we initially used is not enough to for all these vegetables, but there is no need to add more oil. The idea is to half-sauté and half-boil these vegetables.

Pour the boiling water, and let the vegetables boil till they are tender. Add some salt, and let this cool.

Once this mixture is a little cool, blend this into a paste using a hand blender.

Put this back on the stove, add more water to suit the soup consistency and bring it to a boil.

Serve hot, with crushed pepper for garnish.