Creamy Spinach Bisque

Hiya - West Coast sister, Brenda, here. I figured I would get the ball rolling by posting a recipe that I recently made, which was oh-so-yummy and oh-so-healthy.

I found this one in "The Whole Foods Market Cookbook" by Steve Petusevsky and Whole Foods Market Team Members. If you haven't had a chance to look at this book, you really should - it is filled with fantastic healthy recipes. As with any recipes I post, I have modified it the way I modified it when cooking it (at the end I will give suggestions on other modifications).

Creamy Spinach Bisque

Ingredients:
4 tbs butter
1 red onion
2 large leeks (sliced and washed well)
1/4 unbleached all-purpose flour
4 cups vegetable stock
16 oz frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed of any excess water)
3 cups milk
1 pint half and half (or heavy cream)
salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and leeks. Saute the onions and leeks until soft (the recipe says it should take about 2 minutes - although, I swear it took longer than that).

Add flour and cook for about 2 minutes to form a roux (which I learned from Top Chef, the very night that I cooked this soup, roux is the stuff you get from browning the flour and butter and other ingredients. While the recipe says 2 minutes, I guarantee it will take longer than 2 minutes for any browning to occur).

Add the stock. Cook, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes, until the mixture is smooth and thickened.

Add the spinach, mik and cream - bring to a simmer. Cook uncovered for about a 1/2 hour. Add salt/pepper to taste and cook for 5 more minutes.

According to Whole Foods, the nutritional info is as follows: 1 cup = 220 calories, 5g protein, 11 g carb and 18g fat.


The soup overall was fairly successful - though I did not watch Top Chef until AFTER I had made the soup and was sitting there, bowl in hand, when I thought "Oh, THAT'S what roux is!" Aaron made a suggestion that, I think I will follow next time, which would be to add potatoes. You could also use chicken stock instead of vegetable stock (the only downside being that it would make the recipe non-vegetarian friendly.)