Soups & Starters
Soups & Starters
Spinach and lemon soup with goats cheese croutons
A great recipe for any time of year, to serve for lunch or as a starter
I have spinach growing in several parts of my garden this year and it’s been doing amazingly well. Having picked armfuls of it the other day, making soup (some to eat now and some to freeze) seemed the best way to make sure none of it went to waste.
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 6 ready-cooked and peeled chestnuts OR one potato, peeled and cubed
- 450ml chicken (or vegetable) stock
- 250ml milk
- 450g fresh spinach
- 1 lemon, zest only
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- Grating of nutmeg
- 4 slices of baguette
- Half a goats' cheese log
Method
Fry the onion in a little olive oil until soft, then add the garlic and fry for another minute. Stir in the chestnuts or potato cubes, then add the stock and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the milk with the spinach and lemon zest. Bring to the boil then stir in the mustard and simmer for 5 mins.
Meanwhile, grill the baguette slices on one side, then turn over and spread with the goats' cheese. Grill until golden and bubbling.
Blitz the soup in a blender until smooth, then season well, add a good grating of nutmeg and reheat. Serve topped with the cheesy croûtons.
A Cook's Plot Tip
I used ready-cooked chestnuts (the vacuum-packed Merchant Gourmet ones) to thicken the soup as I had a bag of them that needed using up, but a cubed potato works well too.