Jubilee Soup from Wendy Simard’s delicious Green Dot Garden.
“I’ve been able to organically connect the dots on my health journey, and in the process I learned a powerful lesson…
There’s always room to grow.”
~Wendy Simard
Very special weekend here, Angels~ our Queen has reigned for 60 years now! To me this requires a celebration of all things British! What could be more British than a drizzling day, perfect for gathering a few vegetables from our garden or allotment, and crafting them into a warm pot of fragrant soup? Here a lovely friend and fellow Health Coach from the West coast of the US shares her delicious recipe, proving a love of gardens and home cooked green goodness is truly without borders.
Wendy, you are such an earth-sprite! Tell us about the recipe you want to share!
“If you’re anything like me, when you first arrive at your weedy garden plot after a long
winter slumber, you can’t help but get excited about these delicious, early-spring veggies:
asparagus and peas. This seasonal soup celebrates both, and is lovingly adapted from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone cookbook.”
How, and why did you adapt it?
“I turned this into a creamy vegan variation as dairy isn’t something I tolerate well. You can imagine then how thrilling it was for me to discover a few years back that I no longer had to suffer from chronic life-long seasonal allergies, simply by changing my diet! I added peas to the mix for fun. I swapped sunflower oil for olive oil as the latter doesn’t hold up well to high heat. A bowl of this soup is best enjoyed with thick slices of toasted rustic peasant bread and a refreshing mint green tea.”
Spring Greens Soup with Cashew Crème Fraîche
Serves 4-6Ingredients
1 big bunch asparagus (local or from the garden, if possible!)
1 cup shelled fresh peas
1 large leek, white part plus a bit of the green, chopped
6 cups Quick Stock (see below) or water
1-2 tablespoons organic sunflower oil (refined for high heat)
1 small onion, chopped
2 tablespoons raw brown rice
Salt and freshly cracked pepper
Juice of ½ lemonplus, the Cashew Crème Fraîche to finish…
For the soup:
1. Slice the asparagus into three parts: ends, middles, and tips. Chop the middles and
set the tips aside. Use the asparagus ends and leek greens in the Quick Stock.2. Heat oil in large soup pot and add leek, onion, and rice and sauté over medium-high
heat until the onion is slightly browned (about 5-8 minutes).3. Add 1 cup of stock, and stew for 10-12 minutes.
4. Add chopped asparagus and the remaining stock and simmer, partially covered for
15 minutes. In the meantime, drop asparagus tips into boiling water and cook until
tender, 3-5 minutes.5. After 15 minutes, cool soup briefly, then puree with an immersion blender.
6. Taste for salt, add lemon juice to bring up the flavors, and season with pepper. Add
asparagus tips, stir in Cashew Crème Fraîche*, and enjoy!
*Add this to taste; if you add the entire batch, you’ll have a VERY rich soup
For the Cashew Crème Fraîche:
1 cup raw cashews
½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Water1. Soak cashews at least 2 hours or overnight.
2. Put in blender (I used the VitaMix) or food processer along with ACV and a little
water and blend on high. Add more water until desired consistency (figure about 1/
4 -1/2 cup).3. Refrigerate until ready to use.
"Being outside in the garden helps me slow down and reconnect with something bigger than myself. It’s become a powerful metaphor in my life, one that has taught me to honor the process of planting a seed, nurturing it, weeding, and harvesting the vegetable that in turn will nourish my body."
About Wendy…
“My name is Wendy Simard, founder of Green Dot Garden and a lover of all things outdoors and green.
Uncovering several food sensitivities and adrenal fatigue threw a floodlight onto my real
problem, which revolved around diet and lifestyle. As I made changes to my diet I saw
amazing improvements in my energy levels. But only when I also began to find sustainable
ways to reduce my stress did I begin to really feel better.
As a certified holistic health counselor trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, I
was taught to have deep respect for each person’s bio-individuality—basically the idea
that we all have unique nutritional needs. With help from others, I was able to organically
connect the dots on my health journey, and in the process I learned a powerful lesson:
there’s always room to grow.
Connect with Wendy via her website: www.greendotgarden.com, on
Facebook, and via LinkedIn.
As a special bonus Wendy also offers us her recipe for Quick & tasty vegetable stock…
“If you have an extra 45 minutes, she says, “this makes the soup taste outstanding!”
1 tablespoon organic sunflower oil (refined for high heat)
1 onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
2 celery ribs, coarsely chopped
Trimmings from the soup veggies
2 bay leaves and several thyme sprigs or ¼ teaspoon dried
5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
Several sprigs parsley, including stems
Herbamare or sea salt to taste
1. Heat oil over high heat and add onion, carrot, and celery. While they’re browning,
peel the vegetables and add the trimmings to the soup along with aromatics.2. Stir occasionally. After about 10 minutes, add 2 teaspoons salt and 8 cups cold water
and bring to a boil.
3. Lower heat and simmer, uncovered, 25 minutes. Strain as soon as stock is finished.
top image via bakersbalance.wordpress.com
Do you find solace in your garden, or cooking?
Do you interpret delicious recipes and give them your own healthy tweak?
Share your recipe with me, Angel, for I would love to shine a light on you!
