minestra di verdura

Something about springtime veggies makes me feel magical and fertile. Not fertile as in producing little creatures inside of you, but fertile as in vital! magnetic! Like chowing down on a fresh stalk of asparagus will conjur up a glamour spell that will dye your fingernails purple! Or make your pee yellow! Oh wait.

So here's a little dedication to all my favorite spring veggie maidens:

First off, when you can always use homemade veggie broth. It's a great way to utilize all of those peels, skins and scraps that most people just throw away! Isn't that a funny thing about us white people? Constantly throwing useful and edible shit away. Well RESIST! Freeze em up, bring to a boil with lots of water, olive oil, salt, and simmer anywhere from 1-5 hours! I like to just keep a big ol'pot of veggie broth on the stove all day and take sips from time to time. But I guess that's overkill. I use almost anything in my broth but mostly the following:

Leeks, onions, scallions, garlic
Parsnip, Turnip, etc.
Carrots
Celery
A hot pepper if you like a kick
fresh herbs (not the stems- too bitter)
arrowroot and sugarcane (found in asian food markets, so awesome)
what the hell, cabbage, potatoes and mushrooms (even though these last two absorb flavor, I like to put them in and eat them after a while :-))
GO CRAZY!

So you have your broth, now prep your veggies!

1/2 bunch of asparagus
2 small purple potatoes
2 small red potatoes
nice big handful of escarole
nice big handful of chard
1 cup of cooked heirloom beans (I used eye of goat, muahaha)
1/2 bunch of radishes (about 5 little guys)
1 TB fenugreek seeds

Soak the fenugreek seeds for 3 hours. This splits the seed into different parts, revealing very interesting flavors. Some say fenugreek tastes like chicken soup! We shall see. After soaking, drain and dry. Grind em up and puree with some broth. I don't like using appliances all the time, so I actually just used a mortor and pestal then whisked vigourously. You can keep some seeds to sprinkle on your soup as a garnish if you want. Alternatively, you can make a tea out of the seeds and then puree them in their own infused liquid! FUN!! I can't even tell you how crazy fenugreek seeds are. They get foamy, they are gelatinous on the inside, they are bitter but nutty. Experiment with these guys. But if you use too much, the soup will taste too bitter.

Blanch the chard and escarole in salty boiling water just for a half a minute. Rinse quickly with ice cold water. I also like to blanch the potatoes so that they get extra tender by the time the other veggies are done cooking in the pot.

Saute the asparagus and potatoes in some olive oil and garlic for about 10 minutes. Add the greens and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Add broth, fenugreek puree, radishes, beans, salt, pepper, thyme. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

This is a great soup to which you can add little pastas, israeli couscous or maybe even some rice. I will probably eat mine with some forbidden rice, because I can't get enough of that deep, penetrating purple color! oooooooooOOOOOOooooooooo I also topped this with soyfeta, which is pretty tasty.

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