Sorrel Avocado Soup

One of my goals when going to the farmer’s market is to try new foods.  I always try to get something that I’ve never eaten before, never cooked with before, or I have limited experience with.  It broadens my palate and stretches my creativity in the kitchen.  Recently, my new ingredient was sorrel.

Sorrel is a really neat green leafy vegetable.  It looks quite similar to spinach, with its rich green color and broad smooth leaves.  The taste is tart and a bit lemony.  When cooked, sorrel falls about completely, which is why it is commonly used as a sauce or in soups.  It does not look very attractive cooked as it turns into a muddy green color – but at least the taste is good!  It can also be eaten raw, but because the flavor becomes more tart with age, younger leaves are best eaten raw. The flavor of the older leaves can add flavor to soups and sauces.

For my recipe, I also used ramps, nettles and fiddleheads since I’m still enamored with these wild vegetables.  The avocado lends a rich creamy texture to the soup without any dairy.  I used beef stock because that was all I had, but chicken stock would probably be preferable to give it a lighter taste.  To make this a truly vegan soup, the ghee could be replaced with coconut oil or even olive oil if you cooked at a lower temperature and the stock could be replaced with vegetable stock.

This post is part of Try it Tuesday.

Ingredients

• Large handful of fiddleheads
• 2 tablespoons ghee
• 2 ramps (leaves and bulb)
• 1/2 bunch nettles
• 1 cup white wine
• 2 1/2 cups beef stock
• 1/2 bunch sorrel
• 1 avocado, chopped
• Mint, for garnish

Boil the fiddleheads for 3 minutes, then rinse.  Melt the ghee in a pot over medium high heat and add the boiled fiddleheads and ramps.  Stir frequently.  After about 3 minutes, reduce the heat to low and add the nettles, freshly washed with the water still clinging to the leaves.  When they have steamed a few minutes and have wilted and deepend in color, add the wine and stock.  Let it simmer for about 10 minutes, then add the sorrel and cook until the sorrel has mostly disintergrated.  Chop up the avocado and add it to the soup.  Take care not to add the avocado too early as prolonged cooking can make it bitter.  Turn off the heat and let it cool slightly.  Use an immersion blender/stick blender to puree, then bring the heat back up until it is the right temperature to serve.  Garnish with a few mint leaves.

Making Soured Cream of Mushroom Soup

In my effort to use up my soured milk, today I played around in the kitchen and came up with this nourishing and filling soup. I call it soured cream of mushroom soup because instead of using fresh milk or cream, you use soured milk. If you have raw milk at home, you may naturally get soured milk after a week or so. If you don’t have any raw milk, you can use store bought sour cream, yogurt, buttermilk, or just sour some regular milk with a bit of white vinegar or lemon juice. This soup is very filling, and the base of beef stock makes it very nutritious as well!

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons ghee (or butter)
• 2.5 overflowing cups of sliced fresh mushrooms (any variety will work)
• 3 cups of beef stock (if you reduce your beef stock down to a demi glaze as I do, you will do about half beef stock and half water)
• 2 slices of sourdough bread
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 cup soured milk (see possible substitutions above)
• Dash of nutmeg
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Sour cream as garnish (optional)

Heat the ghee on medium heat and cook the mushrooms until they are cooked through (about 5-10 minutes). Add the beef stock and bread. You can tear the bread into pieces before you throw it in. If the bread was frozen (as mine was), let it soak up the broth and warm up, and then you can tear it apart while it cooks. Add the wine and let it cook about 5-10 minutes. Then puree the soup and add salt and pepper to taste, and a dash of nutmeg. Reduce the heat to low and let it reduce for 15-20 minutes. Add the soured milk. Don’t let it cook much longer, just another 5 minutes or so, to warm it back up. Serve with a small dollop of sour cream as a garnish.