I’ve just returned from a trip to France.
It was beautiful and complex and rich and satisfying.
There’s a lot to reflect on and some of that reflecting will become blog posts in the weeks to come.
But in the meantime, and without further ado, a simple recipe I came up with while I was there. It was so good I wanted to drink the entire batch.
I didn’t, but I wanted to.
It started with a big bunch of a type of watercress that we found at the Marché Saint-Sauveur. (This is a truly incredible weekly outdoor market that happens in Caen. A highlight of the trip.)
The cress itself is a beautiful green that can be super spicy, like mustard greens or arugula. I like a little of that in a salad, but heaps of raw spicy bitter greens is a bit much, I find.
Enter the simple green soup.
1 medium onion
1 whole bulb garlic, roasted
2 carrots
Olive oil for sautéing
Vegetable broth ~ 1.5 or 2 liters (adjust volume depending on preference)
I used a super tasty homemade batch that I’d made a few days before.
1 bunch/ several handfuls of cress, washed, and (mostly) stemmed. I left plenty of stems in there, for whatever it’s worth. I like using stems in general, but didn’t want it to get too fibrous, so I go for a medium amount of stems here.
1 big handful of spinach, and 1 big handful of chard, stripped from its stem.
Sauté the onion and carrot (both chopped) in olive oil, covered, on medium heat, until soft/ translucent.
Add the greens and wilt for a few minutes, uncovered, on low.
Add broth, bring to a boil, simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes max. 5 will do.
Remove from heat. Using an immersion or regular blender, (carefully!) blend the soup. It’s best to cool a bit before blending, for safety’s sake. Return to the pan to reheat as needed once blended.
We did salt & pepper on individual servings to taste. This was really all it needed.
The reviews from my tasting crew were all positive. Success.
So simple! So green! Sooooo tasty.
Notes/ Variations:
This soup was created out of a practical need to
1) Use freshly made vegetable broth
2) Use up a heap of fresh, spicy greens we’d recently bought, and
3) Balance out a relatively heavy brunch and a few days of eating more bread than I probably needed.
I was going for a light supper featuring greens. Check and check.
1 bulb of roasted garlic is a lot.
It’s not necessary to use a whole bulb of garlic, but oh my, it was definitely tasty with all that in there! Roasting significantly mellows and sweetens the garlic. Plus, no peeling! Once it’s roasted and cooled, those little cloves just slip right out.
Anyway, even a few cloves, either roasted or simply sautéd with the onion & celery would still be excellent with this recipe.
Cooking the cress completely mellowed its sharp qualities. This particular combination of flavors was divine. 
But there are other options. Vary the proportions of the greens if you like. Use kale instead of the spinach or chard. Or skip the cress altogether and go for a bunch of any of these greens instead. If I were skipping the cress I’d add a handful of flat-leaf parsley to kick up the flavor.
Another variation involves potato with any of the green combinations. Just one will do.
Scrub and cube the potato. Instead of adding the greens in earlier on, I’d hold off on them in this case, add the potato and broth after sautéing the onion etc.
Boil and simmer, partially covered, for ~ 10. Then I’d add the greens for another 5-7 min, and blend from there.
There’s a lovage soup I discovered a few years ago which is similar to this last option and incredibly satisfying. Lovage really deserves its own post, though. Here’s the link for that!
