THE THIN-LEAF CONEFLOWER KITCHEN

36. LAMB & PARSLEY SOUP

It’s not much use trying to hide the leek and potato part of this soup. However, the rich and gelatinous lamb stock I just made and a big gorgeous full bunch of parsley I stumbled upon will be the headliner and hence, the name, Lamb & Parsley Soup.

• Cuisinart Food Processor – Can’t run a kitchen without one.

• Tureen

• Lamb stock (from the lamb essay 31)

• Goat yogurt (how can you not have this in the fridge yet?)

• Half head of broccoli

• Huge bunch of parsley

• A couple of baking potatoes

• Leeks

• Pressure cooker

• Salt & pepper

• Soup bowls

Split the leeks.

Trim.

Fan the leeks like a deck of cards and then do that repeatedly under the faucet until all the sand is washed away. No grit please.

This is going into the Cuisinart so any rough chop will do. Because I only have a quart of lamb stock left, I’m not using as much of each ingredient as I normally would. I think that both the leek and potato are short of four cups each.

Note: I’m using these potatoes because I happened to have them (by accident). Normally, I would choose a pressure cooked cannellini bean over a potato.

I like to get the leeks out of the way first so I can smell them while I’m working on everything else. What a wonderful aroma!

Peel and chop the potato. I’m only using three halves.

Now comes some two part operations. The first is getting the broccoli ready. The first thing is to carefully shave off the broccoli buds and chop any larger pieces small. These buds, along with very small pieces, go into a bowl and set aside for later while the stalks will go into the pressure cooker.

Now I’m chopping the broccoli stalks to add to the soup.

We now are with leek, potato and broccoli.

The next job is to build two piles of parsley. One pile is a rough chop for the soup. The second pile is a fine chop which will be set aside along with the broccoli buds.

The top pile is rough chopped, the second is finer.

The finely chopped pile is ready for a little bowl to be set aside.

Once I rake all of the rough cut parsley off the board and into the pot it’s ready for the stock.

Here comes the hero. Lamb stock.

There was not enough to cover the vegetables. I’m adding spring water to make up the difference. The extra water will not diminish flavor.

Ready for the stove. I’m going to do a 10 minute pressure cook.

All secure and working.

What a great tool this All-Clad pressure cooker is. Saves hours.

A 10 minute cook with a 4 minute rest.

In goes a generous quantity of goat yogurt. I suppose this could be milk, cream, sour cream etc. or nothing. Please don’t use Greek style yogurt. It’s typically too thick as a cooking ingredient and most grocery store Greek yogurts use artificial additives and thickeners. Yogurt, other than plain full fat should be avoided. Goat is best.

This is not a small Cuisinart but it’s not a good idea to put too much hot liquid into it at one time. Be patient and don’t be lazy if you’re going to attempt this or you’ll be washing the walls.

When doing this purée make certain that you quickly pulse on and off until you are certain that it’s not too full. Once you know that all is okay, let it spin just long enough to do the job.

Note: A hand wand also works here. Both my Cuisinart food processor and Williams Sonoma immersion hand blender are ancient and always dependable. Great tools.

This is what the batches looks like. From the soup pot into the Cuisinart and from the Cuisinart into another bowl until the purée is complete.

Now the purée is returned to the pot for the final finish.

Okay, now for the broccoli buds.

And now for the finely chopped parsley. The object is to experience both the cooked and the raw simultaneously. Two textures and flavors of parsley and broccoli. Silky with some fresh crunch. Good.

A generous amount of freshly ground black pepper and it’s time to return the pot to the stove and get it back up to serving temperature.

The soup is now hot but before it goes into the tureen, I get to taste and dial in the salt.

Bowls are ready, soup’s in the tureen, freshly picked mint, lemon wedges cut and riding high in the tea. Let’s go.

Can’t wait.

This is gonna be good. I swung by the market yesterday and the first peaches of the summer are in from Grand Haven. If they taste as good as they look this will be a killer lunch.

Now I say a fond goodbye to the Thin-leaf Coneflower Kitchen in all of its blue glory. I really love these special yellow coneflowers. They are growing next to our chicken aviary gate so we get to brush against them everyday. As soon as they begin to lose their vigor I’ll start harvesting the flower heads for a late fall seed broadcast to develop other colonies throughout the prairie. I have to do this before our finches tear into them.

Thin-leaf Coneflower by our aviary standing over 6 feet tall.

MORE THIN-LEAF CONEFLOWER KITCHEN ESSAYS

30. lamb for sous vide

31. lamb stock

32. lamb reduction

33. vegetables with attitude

34. a bean salad dinner

35. left-overs

36. lamb & parsley soup

Thanks for visiting with me.

Paul V’Soske

Return to BOOK ONE essay index

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