Blended Soup Basics

Creamy Celeriac Soup with Fresh Spinach

Blended soups are a quick, economical and delicious way to increase your daily intake of alkalinizing, mineral-rich veggies. Blended soups are also handy for cleaning out your fridge of slightly wilted produce, or using up leftovers from another meal.

For instance, try blending leftover baked sweet potatoes or winter squash (skin removed) with pre-made vegetable stock, a pinch of sea salt, and curry paste or powder. Once blended, transfer to a pot and heat, adding cayenne pepper, cinnamon or more curry to taste. Serve with a squeeze of fresh lime juice and top with chopped cilantro to liven things up. Easy!

It's almost as easy to make fresh blended vegetable soup from scratch. You can use any vegetables you have on hand—roots, broccoli, whatever. The basic process is to saute some onions first (I like to use coconut oil, which is heat stable and richly flavorful), along with garlic and ginger if desired. Next, stir in your veggies of choice, stir in your herbs, stir in salt and seasonings, and then add enough water to cover.

Once you bring soup to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until veggies cook through. (This doesn't take long. Root vegetables cut into medium-sized chunks cook in about 20 minutes, tops. Softer veggies like zucchini, broccoli or cauliflower are done in half that time.) Don't overcook—just simmer until veggies are fork-tender. Then transfer contents of pot to blender, and work in batches as necessary to puree. Adjust salt and flavorings at the end, and if you like, pulse in leafy herbs or greens as a final step.

I made today's beautiful blended soup with a base of celeriac, carrot and celery. It's green because at the end of the blending phase, I pulsed in a bunch of fresh, raw spinach. (Thanks to detoxilicious Ana Zaharia for suggesting that brilliant tip!)

Creamy Celeriac Soup with Fresh Spinach

1 small onion, chopped
1 Tbs coconut oil
4 cloves fresh garlic, peeled
1 large carrot, chopped
1 celeriac root, chopped
1 small head celery, chopped
1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
1/2 teaspoon each tarragon, oregano, thyme
water to cover
1 bunch fresh spinach
Herbamare and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Over medium heat, saute the onion in coconut oil for a few minutes, then stir in remaining vegetables (except spinach) and sea salt. Saute for a few more minutes, add herbs, stir again and let things heat up for a minute or so. Pour in enough fresh water to cover everything in the pot, increase heat until boiling point is reached, then reduce heat, put the lid on and simmer for about 20 minutes until roots are fork tender.

Remove soup from heat and allow to cool slightly. Transfer contents to blender and puree. When done, add fresh spinach and briefly pulse-blend it into the soup, leaving the leaves slightly intact if possible. Season with Herbamare (an blend of sea salt, herbs and kelp powder) and fresh ground black pepper to taste. If necessary, reheat the soup but try to keep it from boiling again, which would cook the spinach. Instead, aim for pinkie-test hot (about 100 degrees). :~) Bon appetit!