Give Me Your Green Soups!

January 8, 2018 10:14 AM

I don't like the sugar in smoothies, but I still want to drink my greens. Give me your favorite soups with lots of leafy greens. Bonus points for lower carb. Double bonus points if I can drink it instead of needing a spoon (purees, cream of x, etc).
posted by leotrotsky to Food & Drink (21 answers total)

Response by poster: I'll take other non-leafy green soups as well, if you've got them and they're great.
posted by leotrotsky at 10:18 AM on January 8, 2018

Best answer: I've made this spring soup many times and it's always delicious and soul-nourishing.
posted by peacheater at 10:20 AM on January 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I love pea soup! Here's an easy recipe with few ingredients.

1. Finely chop and sauté a small onion in olive oil, sprinkling a little salt, pepper, and garlic powder as it cooks.

2. Add a can of broth (I use vegetable or chicken) and two cans of peas.

3. Bring the soup to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes or so.

4. Let it cool for a bit, then blend it with my submersion blender.

So quick and delicious, and even better the next day! You can drink it from a mug or spoon it from a bowl. I love it with warm, fresh bread but there's a Scandinavian tradition to eat pea soup and pancakes on Thursday nights.
posted by smorgasbord at 10:26 AM on January 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Best answer: I like to make peanut/groundnut soup and load it up with as much collard greens as will fit in the stockpot. You could leave out the sweet potato to make it lower carb (though then may want to consider using some other thickener instead).
posted by bassooner at 10:33 AM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Kale soup:
Remove the ribs from a bunch of kale; blanch in boiling water for a couple minutes; put in blender; add a little sautéed chopped onions and garlic; add salt and pepper as desired; blend, adding stock depending on how thick you want the soup to be.
posted by monotreme at 10:35 AM on January 8, 2018

Best answer: Caldo verde is delicious and quick to make, and you can leave the potatoes out if you would like it to be lower in carbs.

I think broccoli-cheddar soup would also fit your requirements. If you pureed it, you could probably drink it out of a mug.
posted by Lycaste at 10:42 AM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: my favorite smoothie is spinach, cucumber and lemon, with a bit of paprika. I sometimes have it for dinner.
posted by andreapandrea at 10:57 AM on January 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

It's not pureed, but I love me some Italian Wedding Soup. I usually go heavier on the greens and lighter on the meats than that recipe does, but you get the idea.
posted by schroedingersgirl at 11:28 AM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I really like this cold cucumber soup (blue writing on the link). I only use red onion, and go a bit easy on it so it doesn't end up tasting just like onion. You could probably sneak some other greens in there, too.
posted by Paper rabies at 11:28 AM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Nettle soup. It has an awesome nutrient profile, and you can mix in kale, spinach, or watercress (if you want more of a kick) as you'd like.

It is season dependent. I forage mine while visiting family in the early summer.

It is thin enough to drink, or you can thicken it if you want.
posted by troytroy at 11:35 AM on January 8, 2018

Best answer: Serious Eats' French Lettuce Soup
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:47 AM on January 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Here's my newest food addiction-swiss chard soup.
The combination of the herbs and nutmeg make it absolutely delicious, and I've never bothered topping with the feta. I drink it straight from the bowl. Or pot. It's a great way to eat a giant pile of swiss chard without even noticing.
posted by newpotato at 12:26 PM on January 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Boiled broccoli, creme fraiche, blue cheese. Blend.
posted by meijusa at 12:31 PM on January 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

I don't know whether you consider white beans to be "carby" or not, but this soup is SO DELICIOUS. Worth buying fresh sage for, though dried sage also works. (But get fresh sage!) Pack as much kale in there as you want. Puree some or all the way. http://www.cookusinterruptus.com/white-bean-and-kale-minestrone-4136-158.html
posted by purple_bird at 1:23 PM on January 8, 2018

Best answer: Soup en Zo in Amsterdam introduced me to a pureed spinach and coconut milk soup. It's stunningly simple, fast, and delicious. To reduce the amount of fat in it, I've made this with both light coconut milk and a simple vegetable broth as a replacement and it's delicious either way. Here's the simplified recipe from their cookbook, Soep:

Pittige Spinaziesoep met Kokos
50 ml olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, sliced
1/2 small jalapeno or other pepper, chopped
1.5 tsp sea salt
1 kg spinach
150 ml water
200 ml coconut milk
juice of 1/2 lemon
(cilantro to garnish if you like it)

In a large sauce pan or stock pot, saute the onion, garlic, and pepper over medium heat to your liking or until the onion becomes translucent. Add the spinach in batches, stirring to help the leaves wilt. Once all the spinach is in the pan and is wilted, add the remaining ingredients. While the soup is heating, puree the soup in batches in a blender (or all at once with an immersion blender). Garnish.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 1:59 PM on January 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

Henry Bieler, who wrote Food Is Your Best Medicine came up with a "soup" for detoxing called Bieler Broth. The version I still do is very simple: 1 lb of zucchini, one pound of green beans, 1 bunch of parsley (ideally all organic). Roughly chop everything. Put in a large pot with enough water to cover and simmer until green beans are tender. 30-40 mins or so. Ladle everything out in small batches into a blender and blend on "liquefy" until desired consistency. You can drink warm or cold. I actually like it best cold/room temp. He used this at the start of an elimination diet but I'll do a Bieler Broth day every couple of months when I am feeling run down. The parsley is a natural diuretic so drink plenty of water as well as the broth and don't stray too far from a bathroom.
posted by agatha_magatha at 2:27 PM on January 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I heard about this recipe on an episode of The Splendid Table a few years ago and it's been my go-to green soup recipe ever since. You can reduce the amount of rice in there if you like, but it does add a nice creamy texture when you puree the soup. I usually use a mix of kale and chard, but you can use what you like.

One change I would suggest is to add the lemon to your bowl (or cup) when you are serving it rather than adding it to the whole pot. It loses it's zing over time if you refrigerate it.
posted by amelliferae at 4:10 PM on January 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I got you. I’ve made this Clean Green soup probably 10 times over the past couple of months. It’s creamy (but dairy free!), drinkable, and best of all you can use literally ANY green veg you want and it’ll come out great. Just use the recipe as a template for amounts of green veg. I’ve made it as written but also have made it with kale-broccoli-okra, spinach-parsley-green bean, zucchini-Swiss chard-asparagus. All equally amazing. I use a tsp of white pepper and a tsp of various Penzey’s seasoning blends (especially Fox Point Seasoning) and change up the broth depending on what I have in the house. It always comes out to 100-ish calories per 1.5 cup serving of hot delicious greens and I drink it in place of the salads I would be eating in more temperate seasons.
posted by little mouth at 4:29 PM on January 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

FYI re green smoothie w/little to no sugar
Cup of frozen spinach
Splenda 2 sachets

Smoothie ingredients of your choice.(bananas, nut butter, milk, protein powder and oats in mine)
posted by lalochezia at 11:50 AM on January 9, 2018

Best answer: Here's a couple suggestions from my evernote collection:
- Roasted Broccoli and Fennel Soup with Celery Dukkah
- Spring Asparagus Soup with Boursin and Green Garlic
- Wild Garlic Soup with Marinated Feta
- Spinach Asparagus Soup with Lemon Sunflower Cream
- Thai Coconut, Broccoli and Coriander Soup
posted by zsh2v1 at 1:43 PM on January 10, 2018

Best answer: My favorite soup is Gordon Ramsey's broccoli soup (its a puree). You just boil the broc for 8 minutes in salted water. Then, discarding the main thick stalks, blend the broc with some of the same water you used to boil it in. You can eyeball the proportions and then adjust after you start blending. You want the water level in the blender to go about halfway up to the level of the broccoli. Serve it with a crack of pepper, some olive oil, and a disc or some crumbles of goat cheese. Salt to taste. Delicious, even if you don't like broccoli, so simple, and pretty foolproof. As a soup I like it pretty thick, but I have had it as a drink (just add more water and puree the goat cheese right in).
posted by AceRock at 1:38 PM on January 11, 2018