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Wild Garlic and Lettuce Soup

Spring is a time for new beginnings and fresh starts. A season that teases translucent slivers of green from all but the darkest corners. So it is with great joy that I too am breathing life into a new chapter: welcome to the FoodFights journal! And what better way to kick off, than with spring’s darling, wild garlic. Sought after for its leaves, rather than its bulb, wild garlic is delicious in salads and pestos, sautéed or mixed into stuffing. Also known as ramsons, broad-leaved or wood garlic, and bear’s garlic, this wild relative of chives is mostly found in woodlands near bluebells. The tiny white flowers are also edible and oh-so-pretty!

Wild garlic soup

 

Ingredients

1 large leek, sliced in half length-wise and washed
2 heads romaine lettuce, washed and roughly chopped
150 – 180g wild garlic, roughly chopped and little white flowers reserved

2 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed clean, cubed and cooked in a little water until tender 2 cups / 500ml fresh chicken stock
small bunch of fresh basil
1/2 cup / 125ml goat’s yoghurt or kefir (optional)

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper Goat’s milk feta cheese

Method

  1. Slice leeks into half moons and sauté over gentle heat in a splash of good quality extra virgin olive oil.
  2. Add the lettuce and wild garlic, and sauté another few minutes until wilted.
  3. Add sweet potato and stock and bring to gentle simmer for a few minutes.
  4. Blend in a blender until smooth. Add basil and pulse a few times. Try to
  5. Stir in the yoghurt or kefir, if using, and garnish with crumbled feta and wild garlic flowers.

Note: It is important not to heat any cooking oil past its “smoke point,” the temperature at which it starts to burn, as this will influence flavour and decrease nutrient content. However, anything more than a gentle heat will damage extra virgin olive oil’s precious phytochemicals and plentiful nutrients that have been preserved by the cold extraction process.

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