Green Garden Super Soup

Good afternoon!

Is everyone enjoying their holiday weekend?

I have an interesting concoction for you today. In case you didn't know, my mom recently started chemotherapy. It's pretty hard on the family, but my mom's a tough cookie.

She needs protein, vitamins, and good stuff. So I'm really trying to make the healthiest (and tastiest!) stuff I can think of.

This is no exception.

So once upon a time (which was a few days ago,) I was stuck at dinnertime without a significant source of protein at my disposal. The horror. So to slip back into the category of health, I pretty much threw in every green vegetable in my fridge into a pot, pureed it up, and ta da! Super soup.

Are you taking notes?

Green Garden Super Soup

1 head of broccoli, broken up and roughly chopped
1 heart of celery, chopped
1 cup brussel sprouts, chopped  (they're not that bad)
about 5 green onions, chopped
about 15 spears of asparagus, cut into pretty small pieces
3 cups spinach (I used bagged. It just makes prep that much easier.)
2/3 cup peas
1/2t onion powder
dash of nutmeg
dash of salt
Feel free to add any other green veggies you like. I later realized I had green beans in the fridge, but forgot to put them in. Looking back on it, I think they would've been really good in this soup.

 Place all veggies except spinach and peas in a pot sprayed with nonstick spray. (Make sure you use a pot bigger than this one.) Saute until slightly browned.

 Put veggies into a bigger pot after you realize the pot you used was way too small. (Note: Feel free to skip this step if you started with the right size pot, unlike me.) Add spinach.

 Saute until wilted.

 This is where I ran into some trouble. I took my glass Pyrex 2 cup measuring cup and filled it up with water twice (I was out of broth) and poured it in. Then I added some more water, but I didn't really take note of what measuring line it came up to. I'm pretty sure it was less than a cup, though.
The problem was that later, when I pureed it, it came out way too watery. So next time, I would only add enough water to just barely cover the veggies, or maybe even a little less. I'm guessing that would be about 3 cups.

 So, a little after it started simmering, I realized I forgot the celery. So I chopped some up, threw it into the too small pot sprayed with nonstick spray I started in, (at least it was put to good use!) and sauteed until slightly browned.

 Then I threw it in with the rest of the simmering veggies, and let it sit for a bit more.

 

 So next, I pulled out one of my new favorite gadgets, my schmancy new immersion blender, and started pureeing.

 With a hint more salt, it tasted fine, but was too thin for my liking. I don't think straining it would have done anything, but my mom had a good suggestion.
Add peas!

 So I thawed out some frozen peas in that too small pot, (more than what's shown in this pic; I did two batches of peas after still not accepting the thickness of the soup after adding the first set of peas) threw them in the soup, and pureed it up.

It turned out amazingly good. It has a wonderful consistency, and a great flavor from the slight browning we got on the veggies.

After I added the peas, I also added some turkey lunch meat for the sake of protein and using it before it went bad. I don't think it's crucial to the soup, but I think adding some kind of cooked protein at the end is a really nice touch.

After adding the turkey and peas, I just heated it a little longer, and served it up!

P.S. I had three bowls.

Enjoy!

-Kelly M.