{"id":912,"date":"2015-01-04T12:59:16","date_gmt":"2015-01-04T18:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pcandres.com\/?p=912"},"modified":"2015-11-06T11:22:26","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T17:22:26","slug":"turning-new-leaves-chard-kale-spinach-soup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=912","title":{"rendered":"Turning New Leaves: Chard, Kale &amp; Spinach 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%3D912&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_913\" style=\"width: 695px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/New-Greens.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-913\" class=\"size-full wp-image-913\" title=\"New Greens\" src=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/New-Greens.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"685\" height=\"265\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-913\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In with the new, Out with the Old<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Have you ever tried to turn over a new leaf?<\/p>\n<p>You put in all the work.\u00a0 You imagine a new world full of bright, sunny vistas only to discover it\u2019s just the same old stuff.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what happened with this week\u2019s soup.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m in California right now with all its cold and rain. (Sigh)<\/p>\n<p>Not quite the way I remembered it.<\/p>\n<p>Except for the produce.<\/p>\n<p>Here we are in the cold of winter and they\u2019ve got fresh chard, kale and spinach in abundance.\u00a0 I really like Caputo\u2019s back there in the Midwest, but it just can\u2019t compete on this front.<\/p>\n<p>My brother and sister-in-law are in a produce co-op here and get a basket of fruits, vegetables and greens every week. \u00a0And I\u2019m not ashamed to admit the fresh greens got me pretty excited.<\/p>\n<p>The New Year\u2019s meal was going to be a simple one, unlike last year\u2019s breakdown inducer.\u00a0 The menu included balsamic marinated, grilled (yes, grilled) chicken, a grilled zucchini and asparagus salad, butternut squash scalloped potatoes and a soup to be made with chard, kale and spinach.\u00a0 It may not sound simple, but there were three of us working on it, so it was completely doable.<\/p>\n<p>Not that I knew what to do with these fresh greens.\u00a0 My goal was to wilt the spinach together with the garlic, then simmer it in veg. stock for long enough to turn the spinach into the green base for the soup.\u00a0 Next I would saut\u00e9 the kale and chard separately and fold them into the soup, simmer, season and I\u2019d be done. \u00a0Alas, I hadn&#8217;t really worked with chard and kale all that much, so who knew what would happen.<\/p>\n<p>Well, Happy New Year, it worked out pretty much as planned.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately the combination of flavors wasn\u2019t quite what I\u2019d hoped.\u00a0 I had assumed the chard (1 \u00bd pounds of it) would dominate and that its slightly bitter taste would be complemented by the garlic and rounded out by the parmesan.\u00a0 The kale would just play a supporting role with the spinach dissolving into the background.<\/p>\n<p>The chard did dominate, but as it paired up with the spinach, its flavor blended with the other green and morphed into a kind of super spinach.\u00a0 The result was that, as the kale&#8217;s flavor faded away what was left was something very close to my spinach soup from last March.\u00a0 The parmesan produced a milder taste than the feta cheese from last year but on the whole the soup tasted like a rich full bowl of spinach.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t get me wrong.\u00a0 It was a great soup.\u00a0 But when you try something new, you want the result to be new too.\u00a0 This was last year\u2019s soup.<\/p>\n<p>On a whim, as ever, I decided to do some last minute, um, last second, tinkering. \u00a0There were a few leaves of kale left over from the week\u2019s produce basket, so I minced them up and strewed them onto the soup as a garnish.\u00a0 The dish now had a bite to it that stood in opposition to the mellow chard\/spinach\/cheese base.\u00a0 The kale had thrown the soup off balance just enough to make it new again.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s all I wanted.\u00a0 Something new.<\/p>\n<p>Happily, it was also something good.\u00a0 My niece, who at twelve is already more creative in the kitchen than I was at thirty, liked it enough to go back for seconds.\u00a0 As for the rest of the soup, it did not make it into the new year, which is to say, no leftovers. \u00a0Another good thing.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, the blog has made it into 2011. \u00a0As for the coming months, there is only one thing I can tell you for sure\u2014expect change.<\/p>\n<p>It may be subtle.\u00a0 It may be profound. I hope it will also continue to be stimulating and, of course, filling.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chard, Kale &amp; Spinach Soup<br \/>\n<\/strong>(serves 6-8)<br \/>\n1 tsp canola oil<br \/>\n8 oz. spinach, cleaned and trimmed<br \/>\n4 cloves garlic, minced<br \/>\n1 tsp canola oil<br \/>\n8 oz. kale, chopped<br \/>\n1 tsp canola oil<br \/>\n1 \u00bd lb Swiss chard (I used the bright red stuff), chopped<br \/>\n6 cups vegetable stock<br \/>\nsalt &amp; pepper to taste<br \/>\n1 cup grated parmesan<br \/>\n1 cup kale, chopped finely<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Heat one teaspoon of the oil over low heat in a 3 quart      soup pot then add the spinach, cover and stir occasionally until it wilts      slightly.\u00a0 At this point add the      garlic and stir for 2-3 minutes more, taking care to avoid burning before      removing the whole mix from the heat and setting it aside.<\/li>\n<li>Heat another teaspoon of oil and saut\u00e9 the kale until      tender (around 5 minutes), remove from heat and set aside.<\/li>\n<li>Repeat the process with the last teaspoon of oil and saut\u00e9      the chard until tender (5-7 minutes), remove from heat and set aside.<\/li>\n<li>Combine stock, seasonings, and cooked spinach and      garlic from step 1.\u00a0 Bring to a boil      and reduce to a simmer for a few minutes, then puree the mixture with an      immersion blender until you have a thick green base.<\/li>\n<li>Return kale and chard to the pot, bring to a boil,      reduce to a simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add parmesan and stir until the      cheese dissolves.<\/li>\n<li>Just before service, strew a spoonful or two of minced      fresh kale over each bowl and bring to the table.\u00a0 It\u2019s new.\u00a0 It\u2019s old. It\u2019s borrowed. It\u2019s green.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>Image Credit: <\/em>\u201cNew Beginnings, Old Results, Or&#8230;,\u201d another inspired jpeg equation.\u00a0 <strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>At last the New Year is upon us. \u00a0The Holidays have past and we are on to something new. \u00a0How fresh and exciting it will be only time will tell. \u00a0If you have any requests or suggestions, please let me know in a comment. <\/strong><strong>I\u2019ll be reading <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">and<\/span> responding.<\/strong><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever tried to turn over a new leaf? You put in all the work.\u00a0 You imagine a new world full of bright, sunny vistas only to discover it\u2019s just the same old stuff. That\u2019s what happened with this week\u2019s soup. I\u2019m in California right now with all its cold and rain. (Sigh) Not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,114,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dairy","category-spinach","category-vegetarian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912","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=912"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1301,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions\/1301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}