Lettuce Soup
I have two New Year’s resolutions for 2020: only buy clothes that I’m going to wear many times and for many years to come and reduce the amount of food that I waste and throw away. I buy produce with the best of intentions to eat it but inevitably it ends up in the trash bin a week or so later. Apparently, I’m not the only one who does this. American households toss out 150,000 tons of food each day — roughly a pound of food per person per day. Per capita this amounts to over $1500 for a family of four and twenty percent of what ends up in municipal landfills is food. Diverting just 15% of the food that currently goes to waste would reduce the number of food insecure Americans by half. Either way you look at, reducing our personal food waste makes sense for the environment and our budgets.
Once again, I had some romaine lettuce sitting in the refrigerator nearing its expiration. I’m a bit under the weather this week and I wanted a nice hot soup, not a salad. A quick Google search turned up a recipe for lettuce soup and since I had all the other ingredients on hand, I gave it a try. Let me tell you, it was spectacular! I mean who knew lettuce soup could be so delicious and comforting — especially for a cold? This soup is also light and healthy since it’s thickened with a potato instead of cream, a perfect antidote for holiday gluttony. It’s also gluten free and can be made vegan/vegetarian with a plant-based fat and vegetable stock. Consider this a base recipe that can be used with any type of leafy green — spinach, watercress, arugula, etc.. I mixed romaine with some spinach. It also comes together in less than 30 minutes. I highly recommend this recipe the next time you’re left with some wilted greens that need to be used up.
LETTUCE SOUP (makes 4 servings)
1 cup chopped onions
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (or plant-based fat)
3/4 teaspoon ground coriander (optional)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 medium-sized potato, diced (1/3 inch) peeled potato
8 cups coarsely chopped lettuce leaves including ribs (feel free to mix and match with other greens)
3-4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
*A note about salt: I wait until the end to season with salt to account for the sodium in the broth that I’m using.
Instructions:
Sauté onion and garlic in butter in a 4- to 5-quart heavy pot over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add coriander (if using) and pepper and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in potato, lettuce, and stock and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until potato is very tender, about 10 minutes. Add more stock if necessary.
Purée soup with an immersion blender (use caution when blending hot liquids) until you reach your desired consistency. I like it a bit chunkier but you may prefer a smoother texture. You can also do this step in a regular blender in batches.
Adjust salt and pepper to taste.