Swiss Chard Soup

I’m not certain where I get my frugal tendencies.

It really doesn’t matter – I have them. At least I have them when it comes to my potager.

Maybe it’s because I nurse the plants along: watering them, monitoring them, and protecting them (as best I can). Once they start producing edible food I have a very hard time sending it to the compost.

That’s true even of the ones I’m not overly fond of.

Like chard.

I like chard but I don’t love it.

I like it because it’s early – always the first vegetable we get every year. It’s amazingly healthy and I am always happy with the ways I cook it.

But it’s bitter. On it’s own, without onion or bacon (or both) or mustard or something it’s not a favorite.

This year, after a slow start, it’s gone crazy. It started to bolt earlier this week so I decided it was time to cut it back. I do that every year about this time. I cut it down to 3 – 4 inches, then by early fall we have another nice crop.

As I was cutting I noticed that the leaves were really nice…. Too nice to just throw away.

Soup?

I googled it…… Nothing looked very promising.

Story continues after the recipe:

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Swiss Chard Soup

Print Recipe

Serve with a dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt or a bit of crumbled feta.

• Author: Katie
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 8 servings 1x
• Category: Soup

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 16oz (500gr) chard leaves, roughly chopped
• 16oz (500gr) summer squash or zucchini, halved, then sliced
• 8oz (250gr) potato, roughly chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cups (32oz, 1000ml) chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 tbs dry mustard
• 1 tbs marjoram
• 1/4 cup celery leaves
• 1 tbs olive oil

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Instructions

• In medium soup pot sauté onion, garlic in oil until transparent, about 5 minutes. 
• Add remaining ingredients and heat to boiling.
• Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 – 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
• Purée, adding water if needed.
• Serve or freeze for winter lunches.

Notes

I made this for the freezer so I wanted it to be thick.  Add more stock as needed to taste. I like to stir in some heavy cream when serving.

Keywords: chard soup, squash soup

The chard soup recipes I found online all had cream or sour cream or cheese added at the end, which I didn’t want as I was making it for the freezer.

I expected it to be bitter so I googled ways to counter-act bitterness. The only answer I could find was salt.

It would need something to add body to it as just chard would make a rather watery soup. Funny thing…. I had a basket-full of summer squash sitting on the counter.

I made the soup as above in the recipe, but without the potatoes.

It was bitter…. and salty. I may have overcompensated. I usually dilute the stock as it tends to be too salty for my taste as is but I didn’t this time.

Did I mention that it was also a bit thin?

I put it in the fridge while I pondered the situation.

A potential solution came to me about 3am….. potatoes.

The next morning I boiled 8oz of potatoes in unsalted water. When they were very soft I cooled them in cold water and drained them. I combined the potatoes with enough of the soup to make the blender function and puréed the lot. Then I combined the contents of the blender with the rest of the soup.

I tasted.

It was good….. Good enough that I am happy to post the recipe. The bitterness was now a barely noticeable but pleasant undertone and the saltiness was gone. I’ll be perfectly happy to have this for lunch when winter comes. If I were serving it to guests I would add the yogurt or cream or feta – just to tart it up a bit.

It’s not the pretty, bright green of spinach soup but it does have all the healthy goodness. I’ll make more.