Cream of spinach soup with egg and croutons, in 35 minutes
A green cream that works just as well from fresh spinach as from frozen: onion and garlic in butter, a potato for body, the spinach thrown in at the very end to keep its colour, a moment of blending and some cream. On top, halves of hard-boiled egg and butter croutons, because without them it is only soup, and with them it is dinner.
Your own work in that: 20 min.
- Chopping 10 min
- Cooking 15 min
- Blending and serving 10 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneWash the spinach, chop the vegetables
Wash fresh spinach in plenty of cold water and drain; tear off thick stalks. Don't thaw frozen spinach. Chop the onion and garlic, peel and dice the potato into 1 cm cubes. Put the eggs on: 9 minutes from the boil, then into cold water.
Ingredients: 500 g spinach · 1 pcs onion · 2 cloves garlic · 30 g butter · 1 pcs potato · 900 ml vegetable stock · 100 ml whipping cream (30%) · 1 pinch nutmeg · ½ pcs lemon, juice · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Spinach washed, potato diced, eggs boilingSoften the onion and garlic
Melt the butter in a large pot, soften the onion over low heat 4 minutes, add the garlic and fry a minute until fragrant. Don't brown it: browned onion turns the green cream murky.
Translucent, not brownCook the potato, add the spinach
Add the potato, pour in the hot stock and cook 10 minutes, until tender. Add the spinach and cook 2–3 minutes, only until wilted (frozen: 5 minutes, until it breaks up and returns to the boil). No longer: every extra minute costs green.
TipThe potato thickens the soup with its starch, so no flour or roux is needed. Spinach at the end is the whole secret of the colour: cooked long, it goes olive.
Potato tender, spinach barely wiltedBlend and season
Blend with a stick blender until smooth, 1–2 minutes. Pour in the cream, add the nutmeg, salt and pepper, heat until almost boiling and take off the heat. Only now add the lemon juice and taste: the lemon should be noticeable, it lifts the spinach. Acid boiled with the spinach quickly turns the green to olive.
TipToo thick? Add stock or hot water. Too thin? Next time use a bigger potato or less stock; for now, a spoon of thick sour cream will help.
A smooth, bright green creamMake the croutons and peel the eggs
Cut the bread into 1.5 cm cubes and fry in butter over medium heat 4 minutes, stirring, until golden on all sides. Peel the eggs and halve them.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 2 pcs bread · 20 g butter
Golden croutons, eggs halvedServe
Into bowls, two egg halves on top, croutons, a swirl of cream and pepper. Keeps 2 days in the fridge; reheat without boiling so it keeps its colour. Freezes well, without the egg and croutons.
Egg, croutons, cream, pepper
Before you start
With blue cheese
50 g blue cheese stirred in instead of the cream: a bolder, creamier soup for grown-ups.
With rice or pasta
Don't blend: add 100 g cooked rice or small pasta to the soup with whole leaves. The home spinach soup from before blenders.
For children
No garlic or lemon, a teaspoon of butter on top. The bright colour and the croutons usually win over even spinach refusers.
