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Monday, April 13, 2020

An Abundance of Early Spring Garden Greens Made into Soup



Early spring gardens brings lots of greens but not much else. In the last week, I've used these greens in several cream soups. We call them Cream of Green Soup. I've used kale, watercress, radish greens, sorrel, and chives for these soups. All were delicious and a great way to incorporate excess garden greens into meals.


Cream of Green Soup is simple to make. It's just a thin white sauce with steamed greens incorporated and pureed. (I like to thin the white sauce with homemade chicken stock to boost the flavor.) Add a little onion powder/garlic powder and spices/seasonings to taste, and the soup is ready to serve.

9 comments:

  1. I've never tried cream of greens soup before, but anything in a white sauce has to be good. I thought about you yesterday when I opened up a butternut squash and found most of the seeds had sprouted. Several days before, I had tried something I read about making it easier to peel. I cut the ends off and put it in the microwave for a few minutes. However, it was no the miracle I had hoped and was still difficult to peel, so I put it away to deal with another time. Which was yesterday when I cut it open and found all of the sprouts. I thought, another way for Lili to easily grow sprouts. BTW, I just put the squash in the oven in halves and baked it. Not as fancy as the original plan, but good all the same.

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  2. Look at all those greens! Yum!

    The latest restriction from our governor has been to close off gardening centers. I feel she has been on top of protecting our health but I am a little frustrated with this particular order, as I feel shopping for gardening goods could be done with social distancing and would actually encourage people to stay at home once they have what they need. It's also therapeutic to garden and since there are a lot of concerns for food availability out there, gardening would help assuage that. End of rant. Meijer is selling seeds in the store section but the tomatoes were wiped out. I went to Menards but their seeds were in the garden center, which is closed. I feel badly for the nurseries/garden centers as this isn't the kind of product you can store on shelves for an indefinite period of time. We have the seeds we need except for tomatoes. Hoping it all works out.

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  3. Kris, not to get political here, but I heard that order on the radio this morning, and since I "know" you and have another friend there, I was very frustrated. This makes NO sense at all, for the reasons you mentioned, and also because there are predictions that food supply chains may be disrupted for quite a while. There should be no downside to your citizens investing their copious amounts of time and a little money into edible gardening. (Does no one remember Victory gardens?) Also, spring garden products are a perishable commodity. It's unfair to both retailers and consumers to lock those down at this time of the year. Enforce social distancing, if necessary -- you're doing it in grocery stores -- but don't cut off this productive and practical option for your citizens. Ugh. This really depressed me this morning.

    Ooops... I didn't read the rest of your message, after "end of rant", and of course, you made all my points already. But know I'm in solidarity with you!

    Lili, the soup looks delicious. I'm sure each batch is its own taste sensation, too, depending on what you have. :)

    Best to everyone. Sara

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  4. I've never thought to add greens to cream soups. Thanks for the idea. Come to think, we don't serve soups as often as we should. Lately, our meals are so simple, I don't think I could call it a meal, more like grazing out of our fridge and pantry. We are low maintenance to begin with. I wonder what most people are eating, those who had eaten almost half their meals outside the home. I imagine it will not be easy for them.

    I can't believe either why seeds are being taken off shelves. Doesn't make sense to me at all.

    Be safe,
    YHF


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  5. Sara, thanks for your support! Overall, I really do appreciate what our governor has done for us. She is in a tough spot and has to make some hard calls. I suspect that the gardening center restrictions may be lightened up. It's a hot-button issue around here. Meanwhile, we are in no danger of starving anytime soon. We may not always have the exact foods we want when we want them, but there is still plenty in the stores (and in our basements). We have seeds for most of what we want--we'll just eat more beans if tomatoes are no longer an option.

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  6. Hi Live and Learn,
    Interesting. I'e never heard of microwaving a squash to make peeling easier. If you try it again and it works better the next time, let us know. I've cut open an aging squash before and found the seeds have sprouted, too. Last week, I cut open a pumpkin from our last summer's garden. The seeds hadn't sprouted yet, but I still planted all of them around our property. We'll see if we get any pumpkins from those seeds.

    If in your new raised bed you find yourself with lots of greens, you might want to try cream of green soup. If you have an immersion blender, it's very easy to make. Otherwise, a pitcher blender or food processor will also work.

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  7. Hi Kris,
    Oh, that is frustrating. I don't see why they couldn't sell garden supplies via curbside pick-up. Your points are excellent about how being able to garden would actually keep people at home. I know that there's been frustration that folks are running into friends at stores and stopping to chat. Our grocery stores are switching to one-way aisles to help curb people from stopping to chat. I don't know if that will work. I know at the beginning of our lockdown, people were complaining that the lockdown just switched where people were congregating. Instead of work, they were all at Home Depot. It's better this week, though. I see far fewer people walking in my neighborhood. I think folks are starting to take this seriously, here.

    My guess is something will be done in your area to help connect gardeners to their supplies. I just hope that comes in time for planting tomato plants for you.

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  8. Hi Sara,
    Thank you. We enjoyed them quite a lot. One daughter commented that she couldn't remember a year when we so much sorrel. I must be doing something right this year, if the garden veggie consumption is being noticed by my family. We still have some grocery store produce, but are focusing on eating everything we can from the garden to make the cabbage, carrots, onions, frozen peas/spinach, and canned veggies last as long as possible, cuz those items will keep longer than our garden veggies.

    And yes, I remember hearing all about Victory gardens from my father. I'm hoping more folks this spring and summer will also consider a form of Victory garden for their yard. That would take some of the pressure off of any limited food supplies this year so people who can't garden will have enough to buy in stores.

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  9. Hi YHF,
    I've wondered, too, how folks who haven't cooked much in the past are getting along right now. Although, there are a lot of convenience products that I'm sure are being used in many households. I more feel sorry for the people who bought huge bags of rice and beans not knowing how to prepare them and make them palatable. It really helps to have experience throwing meals together from basic ingredients. Also, there's the internet. I'm sure many people are getting a lot of useful information on how to cook and bake from scratch using their devices.
    Have a good day, YHF!

    ReplyDelete

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