Sobremesa Style: Conquest of the Red Giant

Today is day 3 of my challenge to make and post about vegetables, and I thought it would be a good idea to try to use up some of the abundance of greens from my garden. I have an endless supply of swiss chard sprouting my mutant, 3 year old tree-plants which form creepy looking stalks that sprout bunches of tender swiss chard every few inches.

And then there is the red giant mustard. Last September, I planted some heirloom Red Giant Mustard seeds but was disappointed because nothing sprouted -- until December, that is. Somehow, about 10 plants grew stealthily under a tangle of fallen tree leaves, unnoticed until I decided to clean things up a bit to make some space for all the new seeds I intend to plant in a few weeks. Red Giant Mustard is a really interesting plant. It's leaves are very pretty, with hues of rust and purple appearing on the older growth. Eaten raw, it tastes exactly like super-pungent horseradish. But when cooked, all the red color leaches out into the cooking water, leaving just mildly peppery, bright green leaves.

Scrolling through facebook, I came across David Lebovitz' post for Watercress Soup, and I decided to try making it with swiss chard and mustard leaves instead. You can find his recipe here: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2016/02/watercress-soup-recipe/ (And when you get to his site, consider following him - you will not be disappointed if you love pastry, cheese, Paris, or the good things in life!).

I followed the recipe fairly closely, except I used about twice as much greens as he suggested (18-20 cups instead of 9 cups), and I used 3 cups water and 3 cups vegetable broth instead of the 6 cups of water he called for. Also, he adds about a cup of frozen green peas to his soup but I didn't have any so I omitted them. One last change - I used my high speed blender to mix the soup rather than an immersion blender. I don't think you can get a fine enough texture with an immersion blender, but is this is all you have I would suggest passing the end product through a fine sieve or chinois once you are done, to ensure it is as smooth as possible.

The end result was delicious. I made this soup in about a half hour after coming home from an evening session with my personal torturer I mean trainer, and it was warm, creamy,and filling. I tried it three ways - plain, with a dollop of greek yogurt, and with a few drops of preserved kumquat oil which I'd made a couple weeks ago. All three ways tasted great and proved the versatility of this soup. I think you could add lemon, mint or numerous other garnishes to the basic base.

One last thought - if you are watching carbs (as I am supposed to be), you may not want to add the potatoes. Instead, you can add a little xanthum gum powder (and I mean a little - like a teaspoon- because it is about 10x more powerful than corn starch as a thickening agent). You can buy xanthum gum in many markets, where products like Bob's Red Mill flours are sold. It is commonly used in gluten-free bread and dough recipes so is usually available where gluten free flour is sold.