Oh, Green Soup, how shall we sing your praises? Maybe we should start with a disclaimer: some of you will not like it (if you have a childhood spinach trauma, or don’t like the taste of greens, or don’t like pureed food, for example.) But those of you who are into eating lots of green, fresh veggies will love it.
This is a pureed soup mainly made from locally grown greens a mixture of chard, beet tops, kale, and collard greens that are still in the ground as this post is going up. There is broccoli for creaminess (yes pureed broccoli lends creaminess); parsnips, celeriac, onions, and garlic compliment the greens (we wonder if they compliment them too….sitting in the pot together saying oh, chard, you are so sweet, so fresh so tasty and so giving with all your nutrients – who knows what these veggies have to say to one another).
This soup tastes like a comforting green smoothie. Of course, smoothies are raw and according to the raw food movement nutrients can be destroyed by the heat involved with cooking. On the opposite end of this teaching, you can find the view of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) which advocates cooking as a way of aiding digestion.
We believe in balance and offer many cooked foods as well as many raw salads. When it comes to this Green Soup we also believe it tastes better than a green smoothie. It is milder and as we said, comforting, with a little garlicky kick. Veggies like kale, collards, broccoli, onions, and garlic definitely benefit from a little predigestion (aka cooking). The sweetness of veggies often comes out by being cooked – this sensation of sweetness you experience is a result of the predigestion. The sugars in the veggies are already broken down, and therefore you can taste them. AS far as nutrition goes, we have no doubt that there is an abundant amount of good stuff in this soup. In fact, we were using this soup as an energy drink, back in the days when we routinely worked ten to twelve-hour shifts in the kitchen.
Green Soup is truly special.