{"id":862,"date":"2014-03-23T10:09:38","date_gmt":"2014-03-23T15:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pcandres.com\/?p=339"},"modified":"2015-11-06T15:44:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T21:44:16","slug":"a-marriage-of-flavors-bitter-vs-cutting-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=862","title":{"rendered":"A Marriage of Flavors:  Spanakopita Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fthesoupblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D862&amp;layout=button_count&amp;show_faces=true&amp;action=like&amp;font=arial&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;width=450&amp;height=30\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width: 450px; height: 30px;\"><\/iframe><\/div><div id=\"attachment_340\" style=\"width: 390px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Spinach-Soup-.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-340\" class=\"wp-image-340\" title=\"Spinach Soup\" src=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Spinach-Soup--300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"380\" height=\"285\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Spinach-Soup--300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Spinach-Soup--1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-340\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Soup &amp; Hydrangea<\/p><\/div>\n<p>After nearly 13 years of marriage, I\u2019ve learned there are times when I just need to keep my mouth shut.\u00a0 Sadly I haven\u2019t learned when those times are, so, to be on the safe side, I tend to hold my tongue almost always.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, my wife is something of a talker, so there is no shortage of words in our household and no shortage of material for my writing or my occasionally biting commentary.<\/p>\n<p>We share many of the same passions\u2014literature, theatre, the outdoors (Right, honey?), food, wine, entertaining\u2014 the same values, and the same valuables. But rather than being two peas in a pod we\u2019re more like opposite sides of the same coin. As far as who\u2019s the head and who\u2019s the tail, let\u2019s just say I\u2019ve got her back.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the kind of high-spirited marriage that has been going on in the cooking world for millennia.\u00a0 This week\u2019s soup is inspired by the Greek dish spanakopita, a fabulous filo-wrapped pastry filled with spinach, feta cheese, eggs, onions, scallions, blah, blah, blah.\u00a0 Why even go on?\u00a0 It\u2019s the spinach and feta that spanakopita is all about.\u00a0 And these two have been married a lot longer than any of us have.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re both strong flavors too.\u00a0 Spinach has a clean, fresh taste accompanied by an underlying bitterness.\u00a0 Feta cheese has a tangy sheep\u2019s\u2019 milk flavor offset slightly by the saltiness of the brine it\u2019s packed in. You\u2019d think putting these ingredients together would result in a brawl.\u00a0 It\u2019s definitely not something that can be settled with a coin toss.\u00a0 Somehow, though, this conflict turns into something delicious.<\/p>\n<p>Take this week\u2019s soup, for example.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s ridiculously easy to make, amounting to little more than frying up an onion, tossing it into a pot along with everything else, simmering, pureeing, and, well\u2026\u00a0 That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n<p>In that simplicity however, is a pairing that brings out the best in both parts.\u00a0 The sharpness of the feta cuts through the bitterness of the spinach at the same time the greens file down the tang of the cheese into something smooth and mellow.<\/p>\n<p>There are many people, like my daughter, who cannot stand the taste of spinach regardless of how good it is for you.\u00a0 Neither do all people like feta cheese, take my wife.\u00a0 I like them both.\u00a0 And when I put them together in a soup, the taste appeals to fans and detractors alike.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s like any great marriage.\u00a0 The two partners push each other to be something better than they could ever be by themselves.\u00a0 It\u2019s not always painless and it\u2019s not always pretty (see above), but it endures, so long as it maintains its delicate balance.\u00a0 (Right, honey?)<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of delicacy, anyone up for some soup?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Spinach &amp; Feta Cheese Soup<br \/>\n<\/strong>(serves 4-6)<br \/>\n1 Tablespoon olive oil<br \/>\n1 cup onions, chopped<br \/>\n1 \u00bd pounds spinach<br \/>\n4 cups stock: vegetable, chicken, lamb (in the Greek vein).\u00a0 It&#8217;s your call.<br \/>\n4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled<br \/>\nSalt &amp; pepper, to taste<br \/>\nParmesan cheese, grated<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Heat the oil in 2-3 quart stock pot, add onions and saut\u00e9 until soft.<\/li>\n<li>Add spinach and stock to the pot, bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer.<\/li>\n<li>After simmering for about 30 minutes, removed from heat, add feta cheese and puree using a standing or immersion blender (What, again?).<\/li>\n<li>Adjust seasoning, if necessary.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t for me. The feta\u2019s pretty salty.\u00a0 Garnish with grated parmesan and serve warm with pita bread, maybe some hummus, tzaziki, kalamata olives, you get the idea.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>Photo Credit:\u00a0 Spinach &amp; Feta Cheese Soup with a Hydrangea garnish. One\u2019s pretty, one, not so much.\u00a0 Photo by the author<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Let your opinion be heard.\u00a0 Leave comments. Ask questions. <\/strong><strong>Don\u2019t blend in. <\/strong><strong>I\u2019ll be listening <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">and<\/span> responding.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After nearly 13 years of marriage, I\u2019ve learned there are times when I just need to keep my mouth shut.\u00a0 Sadly I haven\u2019t learned when those times are, so, to be on the safe side, I tend to hold my tongue almost always. Luckily, my wife is something of a talker, so there is no [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,114,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cheese","category-spinach","category-vegetarian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=862"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2282,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions\/2282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}