Green Velvet Soup

By Vegiegail

From The Peaceful Palate by Jennifer Raymond

This beautiful green soup is a delicious way to eat green vegetables. Do not overcook it after adding the zucchini, broccoli, and spinach, or it will change from bright green to drab green.

Ingredients

• Optional:
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 2 potatoes, scrubbed and diced
• 3/4 cup split peas, rinsed
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 cups water or vegetable stock
• 2 medium zucchini, diced
• 1 medium stalk broccoli, chopped
• 1 bunch fresh spinach, washed and chopped
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• pinch cayenne
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• Swirl a bit of coconut milk or soy sour cream on top to make it look pretty.

Preparation

Step 1

Place onion, celery, potatoes, split peas and bay leaves in a large pot with water or stock and bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover, and simmer 1 hour. Remove bay leaves. Add zucchini, broccoli, spinach, basil, black pepper, and cayenne, and simmer 20 minutes. Use an immersion blender directly in the pot, or transfer to a blender in several small batches and blend until completely smooth, holding the lid on tightly. Return to pot and heat until steamy. Add salt to taste.

****Be very careful if you use a standard blender! If you place too much soup in at once, you could get burned! It is most preferable to use an immersion hand-held blender that you can just stick in the pot, and use safely. I finally bought myself one, after overfilling the blender with hot soup one too many times!)

*Crockpot version: Add all ingredients into a crockpot and cook on the high setting for 4 to 6 hours. Puree as above and serve immediately.