This soup murdered me. I am so full and logy.I am highly nutritioned, I believe, but I'm just dead. It was that good. (And I'm still here to blog about it, so I'm not that dead.)
The soup came about through a confluence of influences. Con-influence.
A few weeks ago, Amy had posted a recipe for a twice-baked stuffed potato that is filled with cheese and spinach. The picture was so funny-looking, kind of like a big, goofy mudpie made by a kid. I had to give it a try. And I really liked it. What a great way to get your vegetables.
Then the other day, Ilva wrote about a soup she made with leeks, cream, shrimp and spinach. It hardly resembles what I came up with today, but I couldn't get the picture out of my mind: a smooth white bath with paisleys of dark green leaves floating in it.
So I put a pot of potato chunks to boil, with chopped onion and a bay leaf plus a tiny sprig of oregano in the water too; salt and pepper, of course. My plan was to drain the potatoes when they were tender, and then decide how much of the reserved cooking liquid I might need to get a smooth puree in the blender. I ended up using all the cooking water, and added a little more fresh water as well. I wanted silky, not sludgy. (The herbs were removed and discarded before blending.)
Oh. I also poured in a few spoonfuls of warm bacon fat.
The blended soup went back into the pot to reheat. I dumped in quite a lot of spinach leaves and let them cook into submission, right in the creamy soup.
This beautiful hot mess went into soup bowls, where it was topped with crisp diced bacon. Not too much, but... Man. That might have been what murdered me.
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27 comments:
But at least you can die happy. A bit of crispy bacon makes everything alright.
Yummy. Now you're making me want to go make a batch of potato-leek soup with cheddar. Last year I started adding crumbled bacon to it. Now I can try it with bacon AND spinach. But that will be next week as I have already purchased ingredients for this week's soup.
ooo, yummy.
Judith: You've given me an idea. I'll put a strip of bacon by my bedside. Then, if I feel a heart attack coming on, I'll take one last, happy nibble.
Kailyn: I've been into spinach lately. It's so soft. Can't wait to hear about your soup.
Morgan: I feel guilty, knowing you had to miss Soup Sunday. Next week? :)
Good looking soup! I'm making leek/butternut tomorrow, I think.
Zoomie: I couldn't tell you how much that picture of the soup reminded me of this: http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/product_images/U1187.jpg.
Leek butternut sounds serious! Here we are barreling into spring, and making as many wintry soups as we can before it's too late. :D
Glad you like the potato. That soup looks scrumptious. I ruined some spinach soup this week by adding powdered milk when I ran out of real milk. Will NOT make that mistake again!
Oh man, I just had a hotdog for lunch. Gach! I want that soup, now please.
xo, Biggles
Oh my. That is one of those things I look at and think, "I want that NOW!" (heh, kind of like the twice-baked on Amy's blog). Gorgeous.
So I'm not the only one making a pot of soup every Sunday evening?
I like your anology - I think I have been making twice-baked potatoes for as long as I've been making mudpies - I am not sure I ever thought they were worthy of blogging about, but of course they are - a great way to eat veggies indeed.
That soup looks dreamy to me.
mmmmm
Amy: We've made your potatoes twice; one time from leftover mashed potatoes, so there was no skin (we used little ramekins). I think it's open to infinite variation. Thanks for the inspiration.
Biggles: We had hot dogs the other day! Sort of upscale Chicago dogs; we called them Evanston dogs.
The soup was all refined an' stuff, and then it had bacon. Heh.
Limoncello: Around the food blogosphere, Sunday seems to be Soupday. I'm so glad you went and looked at Amy's taters.
Sam: It's a stepping-off point. I really liked how it came out, and now I'm probably going to mess with it. Cos I'm a mudpie-makin' kid.
xxx
bacon will fuck you and then leave you with a smile
it's a conundrum...
maybe it makes you smile and then fucks you
i'm just not sure
Looks Tasty!
But, as far as I am concerned, you were restrained. I would have added cheese AND put a dollop of sour cream on top. ;)
Cheers,
~ Paula
see i just cant come at dairy in a soup. ick.ick. ick. it just makes me think, why? why ruin all that freshness of the vegetable...mmm and meat in soup...not really into that either..whats happenned to me!
Do you do embroidery? Somehow it doesn't seem like you... Shall we have coffee this week at the Thursday market?
I can't think of anything that could improve potato soup but cheese and bacon. The spinach really jazzes it up, too, though.
Claudia: That's good sex.
Paula: I consciously left out the dairy this time. I was experimenting with water as a medium (and jazzed it up with the bacon grease), and I was very pleased. Economical, you know. :D
Kel: Yup, don't think I didn't think about it. But... see above reply. BTW, the potatoes came out like silk, so it hardly needed anything else.
Zoomie: No, I don't. That was just the best image I could find of cranes in a circular pattern. :)
I think Thursday might be nice! What time? It's been cold; bundle up.
Heather: For me it was the experiment of whole leaves floating around in a totally blended soup. It worked! PS: Bacon, too.
When do you two usually go? I'm up for whatever time you like. Flexible but morning, please.
Zoomie: Cranky goes at 8 usually, because there's no line for coffee and the tables are free. But he's game to try nine if that suits you better. You pick the time. Even later is OK.
There's little in life that I enjoy more than a beautiful hot mess.
And who knew bacon made things better?
Peter: I know! Can you believe I just keep coming up with this stuff? Bacon.
Nine would be better for me - have to walk the dog first and then come. Cool! See you somewhere around the coffee stand/tables at 9:00am!
Zoomie: See you at nine!
Genius. I really didn't think potato soup could be improved upon, but now you've gone and made it kinda healthy. Damn you!
Brooke: Nah, come on. Bacon grease!!
I made the twice-baked taters again Tuesday night. I guess I get a little carried away with the add-ins because I once again had too much fillin' for the skins. Last time, I went through this elaborate process of scooping and roasting zucchini and mushrooms as vessels for the leftover mash. This time I remembered CC's post and put it in little ramekins, which made a delightful side tonight. Occam's razor.
Limoncello: I'm a little bit of a sucker for ramekins. It's so very dollhouse. Our own individual casserole.
Great going, you. Slice!
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