SPINACH SOUP WEEK

Today I just made my second spinach soup of the week.  The first one was a bisque, more creamy and fatty and the second one was a spinach puree with a lot less fat especially since I read the recipe wrong.  Both were great, simple and made it to my cook book.

When I made the first one, Spinach Bisque, I left the baby leaves whole but if I was serving it for company I would roughly chop them before adding to the soup.   The big leaves were a bit hard to eat.  The recipe came from the ContraCostaTimes newspaper, 10/18/2015.

SPINACH BISQUE
1 T. EVOO
1 T. butter
1 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
3 T. flour
15 oz. can chicken broth
1 ½ C. whole milk
2 oz. cream cheese
¼ t. Kosher salt
¼ t. coarse black pepper
2 oz. sharp cheddar, shredded
5 oz. container fresh baby spinach

Heat a large skillet with 2" deep sides over medium low heat.  Add the minced shallots, cook till translucent about 5 minutes.  Add the minced garlic clove, saute another minute.  Add the flour, cook and stir another minute.  Whisk in the broth, milk, cream cheese, salt and pepper until cream cheese melts and begins to thicken.  Do not boil.  Remove from heat, add cheddar and whisk until cheese is melted.  Add spinach and let sit 5 minutes to wilt.

The second recipe came from The Pioneer Woman of Food Network.  I accidentally made a big change by omitting the 1/2 a cube of butter but it was a happy accident because it tasted great to me and I saved calories.  Next time I'll reduce the salt by 1/2 t. as indicated in the recipe I have here.  The other thing I did differently was puree it at the end with my stick blender so that there were not chunks of onions, better.


SPINACH SOUP
Drizzle EVOO
10 oz. fresh spinach
¼ C. warm water
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
½ medium onion, chopped
¼ C. flour
3 C. whole milk
1 ½ t. kosher salt, or more to taste
½ t. cayenne pepper, or more to taste
¼ t. coarse ground black pepper

Chop the garlic.  In a large 2" deep skillet, drizzle with EVOO, heat over medium heat. Add the spinach and garlic.  Cook, stirring constantly, until the spinach is wilted, 2 to 3 minutes. Add to a blender along with the water and puree.
To same pan cook the onions in a touch more oil over medium low heat until the onions begin to soften. Sprinkle the flour over the top and stir to combine. Cook about 2 minutes, pour in the first cup of milk to combine milk and avoid clumps, stir in remaining milk, salt, cayenne and black pepper and stir to combine and avoid scorching milk. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the pureed spinach, cook until thickened, another 3 to 5 minutes.  Puree with an emulsion blender to break up onions.

Since I made it ahead of time I like to store soups in these inexpensive pitchers that I got at Marshalls.  They take up less room in the fridge vs. a bowl.