I am not a great lover of soups; I just don’t like the texture of blended soups. But I like this one, mostly because I bulk it out with other ingredients such as rice and chicken. It’s really good for keeping in the freezer and when defrosted eating it with whatever is needing used up in the fridge. It is based heavily on this YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TbJuiukXcE by Emily Eggers, with some minor tweaks and adaptations.

Thai-Inspired Spinach Soup (Serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 3cm piece of ginger, peeled
• 4 garlic cloves peeled
• 2 stalks lemongrass
• 5 spring onions
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 500g spinach
• 900ml chicken or vegetable stock
• A pack of fresh coriander
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1 tbsp fish/soy sauce
• 400ml coconut milk
• Toppings – rice, chicken, tofu, etc.

Method:

Finely chop the ginger. Smash the garlic cloves with the flat of a knife. Bruise the lemon grass by whacking it with the blunt side of the knife. Finely chop the spring onion, separating the greens from the whites.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the garlic and ginger and sauté on medium heat until fragrant. Add the whites of the spring onion and lemon grass and sauté until the spring onion has softened.

Add all of the spinach and let it wilt a little bit, just until you are able to stir it without throwing spinach leaves out of the pan. Add the stock. Remove the lemon grass. Then add in all of the coriander, including the stems.

Let the soup cook on medium for five minutes, stirring it occasionally. Then blend it; this can be done with a stick blender or a jug blender in batches. Then return to the heat.

Add in the lime juice, fish/soy sauce and coconut milk. Let the soup simmer for five more minutes. Season generously with salt and pepper. And it’s done.

When eating it, I like to add in diced up chicken, rice and sweetcorn. But you can add whatever suits your fancy. And don’t forget to garnish it with the greens of the spring onions.