You'll Wanna Eat Your Spinach Soup, Ba-byAfter You Try This Easy & Delicious Recipe!

A Bargain At Twice The Price *

Actually, I don't know why spinach gets such a bad rap. Well, maybe I do. It probably has something to do with that slimy substance in a can many people were wrongly subjected to as children. Spinach should never, ever be put into a can. Ever. Fresh baby spinach is about as good as it gets, and I could happily eat spinach salad five times a week, and sometimes do. I also adore creamed spinach and spinach soup. And I would never turn down a fluffy spinach omelette or a plate of homemade cheese and spinach ravioli.

That said, you're probably assuming that I devote a large portion of my kitchen garden to spinach each year. How I wish. It's not that spinach is very difficult to grow, because it's not--as long as you have a nice long, cool growing season, which I do not. There are actually some varieties, such as Bloomsdale Long Standing, that fare better than most when faced with climbing temperatures, and I have had limited, but very tasty, success with these. In general, though, our springs are simply too short for spinach.

And the other problem with growing spinach, which you know if you have ever attemped to cultivate it, is that you need to plant a lot of it. Those 'bunches' of spinach for sale at the market? They are not one single clump like a head of lettuce. Each one is actually about 50 little spinach plants made up of just a few leaves apiece and bundled together with a twisty tie. Now start doing the math. That's right. Even if I could get a decent spinach crop to grow, I'd need about four acres of plants just to feed my habit, not to mention hundreds of hours to tend and harvest them. Never gonna happen. Storebought spinach is suddenly a steal.

Unfortunately, conventionally grown spinach is near the top of the Most Contaminated Produce List. These are the items that you want to buy organically grown if at all possible. Fortunately, fresh organic spinach is readily available. Earthbound Farm (a wonderful company) sells bags of triple-washed, organic baby spinach in supermarkets and natural food stores across the country. And companies such as Cascadian Farm even sell those handy boxes of organic frozen spinach. (Got kids? Click here to read about an inspiring study that shows an organic diet causes pesticide levels in childrens' bodies to immediately plummet.)

So I expend my energies in the garden on more successful crops and treat myself to bags of purchased organic spinach. Hint: Shop around. I pay $4.99 for 16-ounce bags of Earthbound Farm organic baby spinach at the store. Right above them are 5-ounce bags for $3.99. Go figure. Like I said, a bargain at twice the price.

Now that I've talked you into buying the big bag, what are you going to do with all that fresh spinach? If you do not eat salads at the same rate I do, and you have a few minutes to spare, you can turn it into the most sublime spinach soup you will probably ever taste.

For many years, a version of the spinach soup in Margaret Fox's Cafe Beaujolais cookbook was regularly featured at my dinner table. I made it with a box of frozen spinach (as does Margaret) and plain old canned chicken broth (she made her own stock), topped it off with a dollop of sour cream, and enjoyed every bowlful. But somewhere along the road to my becoming a complete food snob, I stopped making that soup. I can't even remember the last time I bought a can of chicken broth.

But the other night, two soon-to-be-outdated bags of organic spinach and a large bowl of rich, homemade chicken stock began calling out to me from behind the refrigerator door. Make us into some nice hot soup! How could I not? It was twenty degrees outside, and there is only so much spinach salad even I can eat.

Naturally I turned back to my beloved Cafe Beaujolais recipe for guidance, but what I ended up with was like no spinach soup I'd ever had. I will not embarrass myself by admitting just how much of it I consumed in one sitting. Okay, one sitting and one standing over the pot in the kitchen. (Have you ever looked at how much of something has been eaten, known you were the only one who could possibly have eaten it, and yet started glancing frantically around the room for someone--anyone--to blame for a large percentage of its disappearance?)

Once again, top quality ingredients shine through in the simplest of preparations. And while the gist of Margaret's recipe remains the same, I've changed pretty much everything about it except the basic instructions. So what's with the name? Well, it's like the Really Raspberry Tartlets. It's super fast & easy to make, super delicious, and super good for you. It's rich and satisfying and yet contains no milk or cream. The secret to its thickness is a little uncooked rice tossed in.

And where is the picture? Well, I just didn't have it in me to try and make yet another bowl of soup look appealing. This soup is not exactly beautiful, but that doesn't matter because everyone will devour it too quickly to notice anyway. And besides, I couldn't come up with anything as clever as this to justify what would no doubt be a rather unexciting photo. Enjoy! Want more? You'll find several more of my easy, tasty, and healthy soup recipes in the sidebar of the home page under PREVIOUS POSTS: FOOD STUFF W/ RECIPES.

Farmgirl Susan's Super Spinach Soup
Makes about 7 or 8 cups
(I forgot to measure before I started inhaling it)

1/4 cup nice olive oil
1 pound yellow or white onions, chopped
6 cups (48 ounces) homemade chicken stock (or high quality storebought)
1/4 cup uncooked white rice
12 ounces fresh organic baby spinach (about 8 cups packed)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon good pepper

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot and cook onions, stirring frequently, over medium heat until translucent and just starting to turn golden at the edges, about 7 to 10 minutes.

2. Add chicken stock, bring to a boil, add rice, turn down heat, and simmer, with the lid cracked, stirring every so often, for 20 minutes.

3. Stir in spinach, salt, and pepper and simmer another 5 to 7 minutes. Carefully puree the soup using a blender or immersion hand blender. (You know I can't say enough about my KitchenAid Immersion Hand Blender. It's the best $50 I've spent in the kitchen in years.

4. Serve hot, garnished if desired (but it really doesn't need it) with dollops of sour cream or creme fraiche and a few chive blossoms if you happen to have any laying around.

This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging #20, an appetizing, informative, and fun event hosted each week at Kalyn's Kitchen. Food bloggers from around the world participate, and you never know what interesting new edibles you'll discover. This post is also part of ARF/5-A-Day #8, a weekly event hosted by Sweetnicks that proves just how tasty (and easy) eating healthy can be.*

While the USDA Organic Label does carry weight and meaning (despite the controversy surrounding it), please be aware that many small producers (especially farmers) simply cannot afford the exorbitant fees required to become USDA certified. Top quality organic foods are sold around the country without this label, so don't let it be your only guide to going organic. Contact companies and ask questions about their products. Get to know growers and suppliers if at all possible. Support local producers and farmers' markets. Let it be known to all that you care about your food and where it comes from!

© Contents Copyright 2006 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where Farmgirl Susan shares photos & stories of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres.