Seeing Green

I wish I was talking about money because we can all use more. But, today I am talking about GREENS. They are my favorite and so I took a few pictures of what I have been up to. I am preparing a menu for a cooking class and I still had a few things in my fridge to finish off before I pick up my next CSA box from Harmony Valley Farm later today. I love picking up a box of veggies and determining what to create. It involves experimenting which is always challenging and fun.

So back to the green things. I love to eat greens. They make me happy. So of course I want to include them in my class menu. First I cut some collard greens out of the garden (yes we are grateful to the man who grew them) then cleaned them and tossed the steams. Then I determined what to do. I don't usually know what I am going to do until I do it.

So I toasted some walnuts in the toaster oven, while the walnuts toasted I steamed the collards (with salty water), while the collards were steaming I chopped up some garlic. Then I tossed the garlic in a pan with coconut oil. Then once the collards had cooked a bit I took them off the heat and chopped them fine and tossed that into the pan with the garlic. I fetched the walnuts and then tossed those in too. YUMMY!!!

I was also in the mood to get back into making soups. Never-mind that the weather is warm and beautiful in Minnesota, which I am thankful. I will not complain, but for some reason soups are calling my name. So I gathered zucchini & collard greens from our yard, a cauliflower, a leek and various green peppers from my fridge. Then I chopped everything up small, tossed in the main ingredients into some chicken stock and then cooked till done. I added loads of garlic as it is a gift from the gods and then I seasoned with various spices. The last thing that I add to cook are the greens make sure to add some extra virgin olive oil and salt when you add the greens to keep the vibrant green color. The various spices were thyme, sage, and oregano I also used a lot of ground pepper.

The reason I decided to make a soup of this nature is that I wanted a CREAMY soup. This soup turned out super creamy with out any cream. It looks like broccoli cheese soup, but not quite as think. So you can see from the pictures (no they are not fancy pictures and I thought they would be in another order) that the soup started out chunky and then I used an immersion blender to make it smooth.

I made a ton of soup so I can get my greens in! It freezes really well too so you can stock up.

What are your favorite soups? Any tips to share?