Potato and spinach soup with wild garlic pesto (Thermomix)

I’m in a really grotty mood today. I’m coming down with a cold (again), the weather is grey and cold, and the household cleaning needs to be done. Two pullovers, my step-daughter’s fur lined uggs on my feet (two sizes too big) and I’m still freezing.

It’s definitely time for soup.

I found a recipe on the internet which, unfortunately, needed a lot of tweaking. In fact, it needed so much tweaking that it’s now my recipe. It’s not vegan if you use the wild garlic pesto that I have posted here (it contains parmesan).

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 or 2 leeks, white and light green parts, chopped

2 tsp mild or medium hot curry powder

5 medium potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

2 1/2 cups vegetable stock

1 tsp salt

4 packed cups of fresh spinach, washed and drained (I used enough spinach fresh from the bag to fill the  deep varoma tray)

2 cups of non-dairy or dairy milk (I used soya)

2 generous tbsp wild garlic pesto (see recipe on this site)

freshly ground pepper to taste

fresh sprouts as a garnish (or use soya/oat or dairy cream for swirling)

What to do:

1. Add olive oil and 1 tbsp water to Thermomix bowl, add chopped leek/s. Cook 5 min/varoma/speed 1.

2. Add curry powder, 30s/varoma/speed 1.

3. Open bowl, push down stray bits of leek. Add stock, potatoes and salt and cook 10-12 minutes/100C/speed 1 until the potatoes are tender.

4. Open lid, add spinach, cook 2m/100C/speed 1 until the spinach has wilted.

5. Add the wild garlic pesto. Now be very careful when you puree the soup. Bring the speed up VERY SLOWLY and be prepared to hold on to your Thermomix while it purees the soup. It may splutter at first and the Thermomix may well shake or shudder while it gets up to speed. Hold on tight!

6. Season soup to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

7. Pour into bowls and sprinkle over a handful of sprouts per bowl or decorate with a swirl of cream.