Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Spinach Soup


Spinach soup makes an excellent starter or light lunch. The fresher the spinach the better the end result. Unlike most of my recipes I don't think there is a great degree of flexibility with this soup. I've tried experimenting with the ingredients without much success. You can substitute the cucumber for onion and add a clove or half clove of garlic but it's hard to improve on this formula if you want a delicious spinach soup with a full authentic taste. The recipe will serve four people. Whenever possible I make double the amount of soup I need and freeze any extra to use later either as soup or as the base of a sauce or vegetable stock.


Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 40 mins

Ingredients:
3 cups spinach (chopped)
1 cup cucumber (chopped)
3 1/2 cup water
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp black pepper powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp ginger paste
2 tbsp lemon juice
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Put spinach and cucumber in a saucepan along with water and cook until tender on medium heat. Or pressure cook it (one whistle).

2. On cooling, blend it in electric blender to make smoothy paste.



3. Heat butter in a pan. Add black pepper powder, cumin powder, ginger paste, salt.
4. Add blended spinach-cucumber and lemon juice.Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes.



5. Serve hot.