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Green soups are a wonderful alternative to green smoothies in the winter and a potent way to detoxify while having a warming, nourishing dinner. This version, excerpted from Rebecca Katz’s Clean Soups, is chock full of leafy greens and other healing ingredients while maintaining a bright and savory flavor that will leave you craving more.
If a soup could do push-ups, this one would. It's nearly nuclear in terms of energy, and there's hardly a vitamin or mineral out there that can't be found among the kale, chard, leek, fennel, garlic, and shiitake mushroom base of the Immune Broth. The challenge here was making a green soup that tasted delicious. I think this one passes with flying colors, highlighted by the gremolata topper.
Power Green Soup
Makes 6 servings
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- Sea salt
- 1 large leek, white parts only, rinsed and chopped
- 1 Yukon gold or Yellow Finn potato, peeled and diced small
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ teaspoon red-pepper flakes or freshly ground black pepper
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- 1 bunch Swiss chard, stemmed and coarsely chopped
- 1 bunch dinosaur kale, stemmed and coarsely chopped
- ¼ cup loosely packed chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- Kale Gremolata (see below) for garnish (optional) or Crunchy Kale Crumbles
Preparation
- Heat the olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat, then add the onion and ¼ teaspoon salt and sauté until the onion is golden, about 10 minutes. Add the leek and potato and sauté for 3 minutes more. Add the garlic and red-pepper flakes and stir for another 30 seconds. Pour in ½ cup of the broth, stirring to loosen any bits stuck to the pot, and cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Add the chard, kale, and another ¼ teaspoon salt. Stir well to combine so the greens will wilt. Then add the remaining 5½ cups of broth and bring to a boil. Cover, and simmer for 5 minutes, or until the greens are just tender.
- In a blender, puree the soup in batches until very smooth, each time adding the cooking liquid first and then the greens. Blend the parsley into the last batch. Pour the soup back into the pot, heat gently over medium-low heat, and stir in the lemon zest and juice. Taste; you may want to add a pinch more salt. Serve garnished with a drizzle of olive oil and topped with the gremolata, or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Kale Gremolata
Makes ¾ cup
Gremolatas are garnishes—usually made of chopped parsley, grated lemon zest, and garlic. Me being me, I just have to tinker with things, so sometimes I swap cilantro for parsley and orange zest for lemon zest and, what the heck, throw some basil into the mix. Don’t worry: it works.
Ingredients
- 1 small bunch kale, stemmed and finely chopped
- ⅓ cup finely chopped fresh
- flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped
- fresh mint
- grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1 clove garlic, minced
Preparation
Put all of the ingredients in a small bowl and stir to combine. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
Reprinted with permission from Clean Soups, copyright by Rebecca Katz with Mat Edelson, 2016. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.