The majority of the soup recipes in the Irish Times food archive have been contributed by former Magazine columnist Domini Kemp, a strong proponent of the health-giving properties it can offer.
This is her recipe for a quick vegetable-packed soup that can be customised to use whatever greens you’ve got in the fridge, and can be on the table in 20 minutes.
GREEN SOUP
Serves: 6
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
20g olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 fennel bulb, chopped
1 courgette, chopped
Half a head of celery, washed and chopped
1tbsp miso (white)
1tbsp tahini
1tsp turmeric powder
200g spinach
Half a head of garlic
1 litre water
Salt and pepper
Method
1 Don't be too exact with ingredients for this one. A bit more or less of anything won't matter too much. Sweat the onion in the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. When it's soft, add the fennel, courgette and celery. Cook for a few minutes and then add the tahini and miso and stir well. Add the turmeric, spinach, garlic and the water, mix well and season.
2 Heat until it's just hot rather than boiling or simmering, before blitzing the whole lot with a blender until it's smooth.
3 Serve in a bowl or, as we do in our house, in a mug. When you get more confident, you'll end up just chucking it all in a saucepan, letting it sweat for a few minutes and then add water, blitz and season to your liking. I add the garlic at the end to get more nutritional punch – but it can be too fiery for some. If that's the case, add it at the start with the onions, to settle the flavours down a bit.
