Great Green Soup

Tonight is the Blood Drive and Parent to Kid book reading event at my daughter's school. I usually give blood and I am due to give it today, but I am on antibiotics so I think that counts me out tonight. Oh well, I will hit them up at the next event. As a reminder though, if you are healthy and able to give blood, please do! Blood levels in my community are in critically short supply and I know periodically they get low in other places. You can even make an appointment at your local blood bank. Find out where to give here as well as find out if you are eligible to donate!

Okay, so they serve pizza at Parent to Kid night and I know even though we had homemade pizza last night my little munchkins will want some when they get there, but first they are going to have a bowl of Great Green Soup, inspired by some soup I once had at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Massachusetts. The cafeteria there was wonderful, really locavore and organic and everything was so tasty! It was the coldest May I can ever remember and they had a bright green soup that tasted wonderful and was bright as green grass. I asked the lady behind the counter what was in it and she said, "Basically, any green vegetable we have in stock and in season. Frozen veggies work well in it too!" So today my great green soup is a simple affair, I sauteed chopped onions and celery in butter and salt, then I added chopped baby spinach and 6 large stalks of lightly steamed and chopped up asparagus. To this I added 2 1/2 C of organic chicken broth (could just as easily be veggie broth) and then I mixed it all up with my immersion blender. Taste and adjust seasonings; if need be add a bit of fresh ground black pepper. I serve it with a dollop of plain greek yogurt, but you can of course use sour cream or creme fraiche if you have it. I think a bit of shaved parmesan cheese in it or on it might be good too.

So there you go, bright green tasty antioxidants in a cup! This might be fun to serve for St. Patrick's day too!