Recipe of the Week: Leafy Greens and Coconut Milk Soup

Recipe of the Week is contributed by Seattle-based award-winning cookbook author, urban farmer and Seattle magazine contributor Amy Pennington.

The new year is a great time to recover from holiday indulgences. Personally, I’m so over food and drinks just now. Instead, I’m craving clean eating foods that I know will work through my system quickly and provide me with energy. (I’ve been counterbalancing bourbon with green juice for a week!) Craving fuel, January 1 is when I typically make a shopping list and stock up on frozen cut fruit for smoothies, bunches of leafy, winter greens and make sure I have some lean proteins available for adding to meals.

Here, the good fats found in coconut milk satiate and homemade beef stock provides a calcium and phosphorous dense broth full of minerals providing a base for the Leafy Greens & Coconut Milk Soup. I fill a large, shallow bowl with torn spinach leaves, a handful of mixed herbs (whole cilantro, basil and mint are delicious and invigorating) and some finely chopped green onions. Add thinly sliced jalapeño for spice; they’re especially great when you’re fighting a cold as the capsaicin from the seeds (the compound that creates the spiciness) thins mucus and helps to open up your nasal passages.

Pour hot broth directly over the greens: the heat cooks the greens, allowing the soup to come together in minutes. Keep the pantry filled with at least one can of coconut milk (look for a pure brand that avoids adding carageenan, a seaweed derivative that is thought to be an allergen) and keep a container of stock frozen in the freezer, for easy meal making.

Leafy Greens & Coconut Milk Soup

2 parts bone broth
1 part coconut milk

Place broth and coconut milk into a small saucepan and heat to boiling. Meanwhile, fill a large, shallow bowl with greens, as above. When broth is at a low boil, pour over the veg and serve immediately.

For bone broth, check out this recipe from Broth Bar, from the article Experience the Benefits of Bone Broth published in the magazine’s October 2016 issue.

Find more on Amy Pennington, Seattle author, gardener and cook, more recipe ideas and inspiration as well and gardening tips and tricks, visit Amy’s website at amy-pennington.com, Urban Garden Share, and find garden updates and food for thought at Amy’s twitter at twitter.com/gogogreengarden.