RADISH TOP SOUP
This is a wonderful and creative recipe from Mary Pike, a Veggie Coop Member. After you read the basic recipe, read on into the comments. This is a woman who cooks the way I like to cook; some basic ideas and trial and error. I had never made radish top soup and am looking forward to making it for the WOOFERS who are vegetarians. I have to get the pot on; they are driving from Gros Morne, today. Mary, Thanks for this inspiration. (Melba Rabinowitz, September 03, 2009)
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Radish Top Soup
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, diced
2 medium potatoes, sliced
4 cups raw radish greens
4 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup heavy cream
5 radishes, sliced
DIRECTIONS
Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and saute until tender. Mix in the potatoes and radish greens, coating them with the butter. Pour in chicken broth. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes.
Allow the soup mixture to cool slightly, and transfer to a blender. Blend until smooth.
Return the mixture to the saucepan. Mix in the heavy cream. Cook and stir until well blended. Serve with radish slices.
COMMENTS:
This delicious soup was rich and creamy tasting even without the cream. I simply added extra broth after it was blended to adjust the thickness. I also added 3/4 cup of chopped celery and an extra potato to the cooking pot, along with a pinch each of dried parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. (Sing while you add these!) I was afraid at first to tell my teenaged son what I was making for dinner, but he helped, and the whole family loved the results.
This was delicious, but trying to stay low fat I did not add heavy cream to the soup. Instead after ladling into the soup bowl I added a dollop of low fat sour cream and garnished with a brunoise of radish. I also use fresh radish tops mixed into tossed salads it gives it a nice texture.
I altered the recipe a lot to use up what I had at home. I used milk ( instead of cream. I also added several radishes to the pureed mix to use them up, but I had no potatoes so it was not as thick. I sautéed some onions, carrots, and celery and added them to the soup to give it some bulk. It was delicious, and I'm sure I could pass it off as spinach and no one would know. (Everyone was appalled when I told them I made radish soup).
I doubled the radish greens (2 bunches and 4 potatoes) but kept the rest of recipe proportions the same. Used regualr full fat yogurt, as I didn't have cream on hand. Added a tablespoon of curry and teaspoon of black pepper for an extra bit of flavour.
I wanted a more potato soup kind of outcome, so I added a few more potatoes, chopped celery, about 2 TBS of minced garlic (I lilke garlic) and about 1 cup of chopped garden herbs ( dill, lemon thyme, sage, rosemary). If you want more of a "Punch" follow the other reviewer's suggestion to add hot sauce. If you're an anti-spicey like me and just want to use up a ton of garden herbs and radish tops, you can't go wrong.
