This recipe is the result of my taking part in an Instagram food photography challenge. The challenge takes place for 4 weeks and there is a theme every week. This week the theme is Green drink/soup/salad. This is organized by Kimberly Espinel of thelittleplantation.co.uk So you work around the weekly theme and in the process trying to make your food photography better. This is such a great initiative and you also get to see all the other participants’ work. Quite inspiring. Green soup works really nice for me this time because its getting cold here in Dubai (hahaha) and a warm soup does always the trick. My London friends reading will be probably laughing!
So off I went to do my groceries and I found this beautiful kale (which by the way I like devouring just boiled with olive oil and lemon). I though it would be great for soup. And then I found these really nice leeks. I love leeks. In a soup, on a tart. Pretty much every way. So Im making this soup using very fresh seasonal greens and its so tasty!
It’s also super easy to make. You put 1.5 lts of water in a pot and 2 cups of chicken broth. Bring this to the boil and add one potato cut in 8ths, kale chopped in big pieces, one medium onion quartered, and 2 leeks cut in big pieces. Basically, you want all the veggies to be of similar size more or less. And that’s because you want them to boil and become soft around the same time.
Salt and pepper. So you boil these babies for around half an hour or until they become soft enough to be blended easily. Around 20 mins into the boiling process, check the liquid. I added 2 more cups of water at this point. Once everything is nicely boiled you take it out and process it in a blender. If you have a submersion blender, that works really well too and you can do in the pot.
For toppings I use toasted almonds and sour creme. Once you serve your soup, put a dollop of creme and sprinkle some almonds. Almonds are also very easy to make. Just arrange half a cup of almonds in a pan and toast them for around 3-4 mins. You want to brown them so they are crunchy and aromatic. You don’t want to over do it and burn them. Let them cool and chop them up roughly.
Serves 3-4
Time: 5 mins preparation, 30 mins cooking
INGREDIENTS
2 cups chicken broth
1.5 lt (ard 1.5 quart) water plus 0.5 lt (ard 0.5 quart or 2 cups)
2 leeks, cut in big pieces
1 medium potato cut in 8ths
150 g (5.3 oz) kale, very roughly chopped
1 medium onion, quartered
1/2 cup almonds, roughly chopped and toasted
sour creme
DIRECTIONS
Put 1.5 lts of water in a pot and 2 cups of chicken broth. Bring this to the boil and add one potato cut in 8ths, kale chopped in big pieces, one medium onion quartered, and 2 leeks cut in big pieces. Veggie pieces should be more or less similar size to boil evenly
Salt and pepper. Boil these babies for around half an hour or until they become soft enough to be blended easily. Around 20 mins into the boiling process, check the liquid. I added 2 more cups of water at this point.
Once everything is nicely boiled you take it out and process it in a blender. If you have a submersion blender, that works really well too and you can do in the pot.
Serve in bowl and put on top a dollop of sour creme. To make toasted almonds arrange half a cup of almonds in pan and toast them for around 3-4 mins. You want to brown them so they are crunchy and aromatic. You don’t want to over do it and burn them. Let them cool and chop them roughly.
