Spinach Soup

I love greens in any forms and in any meal. However, S is little fussy about it. He keeps telling me that I cook hospital food. To make sure that he eats spinach I had to google recipes. I didn't want to make the usual indian curries from it and that is how I stumbled upon a recipe from a website called allrecipes. This is one of the yummiest soups and it is healthy. 

Ingredients - 

1 1/2 cups water

1 bundle of fresh spinach (washed and chopped)

1 tablespoon butter

3 cups milk

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream (optional)

1/8 cup minced onion

salt and pepper to taste 

2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)

1 clove minced garlic

1/4 cup chopped and boiled carrot (optional)

Directions - 

1. In a saucepan, combine water and spinach. Bring to a boil, and cook till spinach is tender. 

2. Melt butter in another sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in onion and garlic and cook till translucent. Gradually whisk in milk and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add carrots and let it cook for few minutes till it all blends. 

3. Stir in spinach to the mixture. Once everything is cooked and blended well, pour mixture in a blender and blend if you have any chunks of veggies. heat it a little add cream and serve hot with croutons. 

Tips:

If you want soup thicker, you could stir in some all purpose flour in melted butter and then add other ingredients. I skipped all purpose flour and heavy whipping cream to make it healthier. 

You could also use chicken bouillon if you wish to. You can add this step 1 with water and spinach. 

You can try to make soup with other veggies of your choice e.g., mushroom, broccoli, asparagus, etc.

Potato Soup

This is my second winter in USA and this year winter is so much better than previous year. While I think what to cook for dinner the only thing which occurred to me was something which keeps us warm and then I decide for potato soup, which will warm us on a cold winter night.

Ingredients

1-1/4 potatoes, peeled and quartered

3/8 small carrot, finely chopped

1/8 stalk celery, finely chopped

3/8 small onion, minced

1/2 cup water/ vegetable broth

salt to taste

3/4 cup and 1 tablespoon milk

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/3 cup shredded swiss cheese

Directions:

In a large saucepan, bring potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, vegetable broth/ water and salt to boil. Reduce heat cover and simmer until all veggies are tender. Once cool pour this in a mixie and make  it into a nice smooth. I left some potato pieces intentional to chew it while sipping it. Also, I used water instead of vegetable broth. 

Stir in milk to the mixture. 

In a small mixing bowl, blend butter, flour, parsley and pepper; stir into mixture. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly.

Remove from heat, add cheese and stir until melted. 

Garnish with cheese and croutons. Serve hot. 

Try it, click it and let me know if you enjoyed it.