Ultra-greens soup – The Vegetable cook book

Its easy to feel virtuous when tucking into this green veg-packed soup called Ultra-greens soup from the book The Vegetable. Here is another beautiful way to use silver beet stalks, rather than just the leaves if you’d like a touch of spice, add a splash of sriracha chilli sauce.

Serves 4-6

6oog bunch of sliver beet ( swiss chard)
350 g bunch of kale
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 leek, white part only, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
400 g tin cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1.25 litres Vegetable stock
175 g bunch of broccolini
olive oil cooking spray
2 tablespoons lemon juice or verjuice
2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
Greek-styleyoghurt, to serve
2 tablespoons pepitas ( pumpkin seeds)

Preheat the over to 160 C Line a baking tray with baking paper

Trim the ends off the silver beet stalk. Chop the silver beet leaves, thinly slice the stalks and set aside, keeping them separate. Strip the kale leaves from the stalks.
Tear two of the larger leaves into bite-sized pieces and place on the baking tray .
Roughly chop the remaining kale leaves and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy-based saucepan over low-medium heat. Sauté the silver beet stalks and leek for 10 minutes, or until softened and starting to colour. Add the garlic and the silver beet and kale leaves and cook, stirring, until
the garlic is fragrant; you may need to add the leaves in batches, waiting for the leaves to wilt so they will all fit.

Add the cannelloni beans and stock, bring to the boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low. Simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are very tender. Remove from the heat and set saide to cool slightly

Meanwhile, spread the broccolini on the baking tray with the kale, in a single ayer. Spray with olive oil and season with sea salt flakes. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the broccolini is charred and the kale crisp.

Blend or process the soup until smooth, then gently reheat over low heat, if necessary. Sir in the lemon juice and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Ladle into warm bowls and serve topped with the roasted kale and broccolini, yogurt, sunflower seeds and pepitas.

BEST IN AUTUMN …….. if that ever arrives!