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Hearty Healthy Spring Soup

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Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 leeks, thinly sliced
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 12 oz. fresh broccoli florets
  • 1 large russet potato, peeled and diced
  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • 8 oz. fresh spinach leaves
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Shredded cheese or sour cream for garnish

Directions

  • In a soup pot, warm olive oil and sauté leeks and garlic over medium heat 5 minutes. Stir in broccoli and potato and cook for about a minute. Add vegetable broth. Turn up heat and bring mixture to a boil; boil for about 10 minutes or until broccoli and potatoes are tender, but not too soft.
  • Remove from heat and stir in spinach. Working in batches, blend mixture in a blender or food processor until smooth. (The ideal consistency is similar to cream of broccoli.)
  • Return mixture to clean soup pot and reheat, if needed. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls and garnish each serving with a dollop of sour cream or shredded cheese, if desired. As I admire this fine spinach purchased by my local co-op, I take comfort that I will soon be pulling spinach from my own backyard.
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My windowsill is lined with seedlings sprouting their little green tops from pockets of soil. Just above the seedlings, my window frames a picture the Wisconsin winterscape, which can be impressive in December, but it gets rather gray and dreary by the end of February. I’m over it, and I want to think Spring.

To combat the late winter chill and think Spring, I whip up a pot of soup that has some of the best spring/early summer ingredients — spinach, leeks, and broccoli — all loaded with cold-fighting, energy-boosting vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber that provide the perfect energetic pick-me-up to get through winter’s final blast.

I bought some fine organic spinach and broccoli from a local co-op, and as I prepped my vegetables for the soup, I looked at my seedlings on the windowsill and took comfort in the fact that it wouldn’t be long before I would be pulling spinach, broccoli, and leeks from the dirt in my own backyard.