rants & recipes

I've been wanting to make creamed spinach soup for a long time and finally, last night, with a huge tub of spinach that needed to be eaten, I finally managed to give it a try. The following recipe is just a compilation of lots of recipes I found online. If you're not sure you will like creamed spinach soup, halve this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 1/2 carrots, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, diced
• generous amount olive oil
• 4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 4 cups water
• 1 vegetable cube (I used Rapunzel no-salt)
• about 2 tsp vegetable bullion (I used Better Than Bullion, Chick'n)
• black pepper, red pepper
• about 10-12 ounces fresh spinach
• about 3 tbsp Earth Balance
• dash soy sauce
• dash Indian curry powder(I used Frontier brand)
• about 2 tbsp Tofutti Cream Cheese
• 2 cups plain, unflavored soy milk
• pinch nutmeg, optional

Instructions:

1. Saute onions, carrot and garlic in olive oil for about 5 minutes.
2. Add water, potatoes, vegetable cube and bullion.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes are almost done.
4. Add spinach, peppers, soy sauce and Earth Balance.
5. Cook until spinach is wilted. Lower heat.
6. Add soy milk, curry, Tofutti. (Don't boil after adding soy milk and Tofutti.)
7. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth.
8. Serve with extra Tofutti cream cheese, if desired

Notes:

• My goal with this soup was to make a blended soup that was satisfying and a meal-in-itself - lower-fat versions would make a wonderful side dish.
• Two onions would be better, I only had one.
• Evin, an ardent blended-soup hater, said this was "better than he expected" - high praise, indeed!