So this week it's supposed to be hot here in Charlotte, high's in the upper 80's, and full blown sunshine. I guess this is "spring" in the south, or spring started at the end of February... I'm definitely not complaining! Either way we're still getting used to the warm temps living here. So why soup, you ask? Because, honestly, I get chilly in the air conditioning (pathetic, I know), and more likely I need to detox after the weekend :)
My Mom and Dad came to visit so we showed them some good southern hospitality and eats. Early Sunday morning Chris fired up the smoker and by the afternoon we had mouth-watering pulled pork, brisket, and racks of baby back ribs. It was delicious. In addition to all that I made a strawberry, mango and goat cheese spinach salad, and tried out this recipe for mac-n-cheese. We also celebrated my Dad's birthday, so I proudly made my first salted nutella tart. Everything was slowly savored and we were fat and happy by day's end. So today, you can see I REALLY needed some detoxing slimming asparagus. And when I need to detox from a weekend of indulgence, I always turn to soup.
This soup yells spring not only because of the asparagus, but I love the addition of dandelion greens. They have a pleasant bitter flavor that tastes great sauteed or in a soup. Dandelion greens are another great leafy green to experiment with, I encourage you to give them a try. Sweet potato, spring onions, white beans and a parmesan rind provide a complex flavor that is not only delicious, but healthy :) The recipe is adapted from Mark Bittman and part of The Food Matters Project. For the orginal recipe visit Adrienneats, and for what other food bloggers did, check out The Food Matters Project.
1/2 cup White beans
1/2 a medium sweet potato, diced (I left the skins on)
1/2 lb asparagus, sliced into 2" pieces
2 cups dandelion greens, leaves removed from stems
1 tsp garlic
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Parmesan rind
4 cups fat free chicken broth
1 cup water
2 stalks of spring onion
Method
In a large soup pot, heat olive oil and saute garlic for 1-2 minutes. Add chicken broth, white bean, sweet potato, asparagus, dandelion greens and parmesan (pretty much the rest of the ingredients). Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until potatoes are tender. Top with extra parmesan and enjoy!
I used sweet potatoes as well and didn't puree my soup. I'm salted Nutella tart sounds like an awesome dessert.
ReplyDeleteDandelion Greens are so detoxifying - I love to eat them in the Spring!
ReplyDeleteMargarita, I loved the addition of sweet potato's too :) And yes... the salted nutella tart was good, too good. I am trying everything to ignore that the fact the leftovers are in the freezer!
ReplyDeleteAlyssa, I've been using dandelion greens all week, they're such a change of pace from the kale/swiss chard/spinach route!
ReplyDeleteI like how you added the dandelion greens, what a great idea! I have yet to cook with them, but they're definitely on the list!
ReplyDeleteThanks Evi! :) They are really good in soup, and I just had them in a quinoa dish, also pretty good!
ReplyDeleteDandelions sound great. My husband thinks I am crazy to buy something that he wants to kill in the garden. I shrug lol
ReplyDeleteDandelion greens in soup, I'm intrigued! I really need to give those greens a chance. Seems funny to eat something that I used to pull out of the yard as a kid.
ReplyDeleteI know, I agree, I also thought it was crazy people ate dandelions! My husband thought I lost my marbles :) But then I read how good they are for you, so I thought, why not?!
ReplyDelete