Arugula Soup

Monday, April 30th, 2007

Filed Under Greens, Recipes, Soups and Salads, Vegetarian

Arugula is a small spicy green leaf with a peppery flavor and is normally combined with milder tasting greens in mixed greens salad. Some think it is too bitter, I think it is an acquired taste, I really love that peppery taste and regularly use this in salads. Arugula and almonds processed to a smooth paste makes a nice side dish for grilled meat. According to Wikipedia, Arugula has been grown as a vegetable in the Mediterranean area since Roman times, and was considered an aphrodisiac. Like most other salad greens, Arugula is rich in iron, calcium and vitamins A and C and has only 2 calories per half cup. Because of its pungent flavor, arugula actually makes a nice candidate for a cold soup. I added some sweet peas and almonds to neutralize the strong flavor in this soup.

“Cold soup is a very tricky thing and it is the rare hostess who can carry it off. More often than not the dinner guest is left with the impression that had he only come in a little earlier he could have gotten it while it was still hot.”
–Fran Lebowitz

Ingredients

4 packed cups chopped Arugula leaves
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp chopped shallots
1 tsp chopped garlic
4 cardamom pods
1″ cinnamon stick
1/2 cup blanched almonds
1 cup sweet green peas
2 cups vegetable stock
1 cup whole milk
1 tbsp sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

Method

In a saucepan, heat the olive oil and saute the cardamom and cinnamon.

Add the chopped shallots and garlic and saute till brown.

Add the peas and saute for 2 minutes.

Add the arugula leaves and saute till the leaves are wilted.

Add the almonds and stock and bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Remove the cardamom pods and cinnamon stick and throw these away.

Remove from heat and using a hand blender, puree the contents to a smooth paste. Or transfer the content to a food processor and process until smooth.

Return the saucepan to the stove and add the milk. Heat till the milk is heated through. Stir in the sour cream and add salt and pepper to taste.

Chill in the refrigerator till it is icy cold.

To serve, garnish with tossed almonds , caramelized onions , diced ham and parsley.

The soup had the distinguish peppery taste of arugula, combined with the sweetness from the peas along with the nutty almond taste.

This month is JFI’s one year anniversary. In case you have been living under a rock (like I used to be a few months ago) and haven’t heard of JFI, read all about it here. Indira of Mahanandi who is the inventor of this most popular food blog event (last month’s JFI - Tomato had more than 100 entries!) has picked the theme - Going Green with Green Leafy Vegetables. This month JFI is also combined with Weekend Breakfast Blogging (WBB), brainchild of beautiful Nandita ,one of my closest friends from the blogosphere. I’ve been raking my brain to come up with a dish that will be good for WBB and JFI, and before I knew it April was almost gone. I finally decided to make this soup Friday night, which I actually ended up having for brunch on Saturday! Mainly because this was the only thing in my fridge. My cricket crazy hubby was glued to the TV watching the world cup finals, so there was no chance of going out for brunch. That is the great thing about a cold soup, it tastes great the next day too. This is my entry for JFI - Green Leafy Vegetables and WBB #10.

Technorati tags: Weekend Breakfast Blogging, WBB10, JFI, Green Leafy Vegetables, Jihva for Ingredients, Arugula Soup

Comments

13 Responses to “Arugula Soup”

Richa on April 30th, 2007 1:23 am

hey sig, soup looks yummy, the garnish looks swell never had arugula soup but have tasted it as a part of a salad. I guess the almond will take away the pungency as you said, book marking it! Hope u had a good wknd!
KitchenFairy on April 30th, 2007 3:37 am

Never heard about Arugula,Your soup looks delicious.Good Entry for JFI
Coffee on April 30th, 2007 4:25 am

Never heard of this leaf!!!!! Must try hunting next time…. looks good.
Roopa on April 30th, 2007 6:08 am

hmm! never heard of the name before! very uniques recipe too looks very nice too!
Reena on April 30th, 2007 6:57 am

Sig, I just posted my entry to JFI and came here to see that your entry too has Arugula:).
Asha on April 30th, 2007 12:02 pm

I love Arugula in salad.Soup looks great Sig.Garnish is parsley right?
Last weekend we went to Farmer’s market,they were selling lot of them.
musical on April 30th, 2007 1:27 pm

Cream soup with Arugula, WOW! too good, Sig-it looks fabulous. Almonds am sure would add body and like you n’ Richa said, take way the sharpness of flavor. Very pretty and delicious. Will make this soon…..i am imagining having it with crisp savory toasts
Mishmash ! on April 30th, 2007 4:45 pm

hmm…I have not tasted arugula, so cant even imagine how the taste would be…but with all that almond and milk and cream , it should taste good Nice colour and snap too
Shn
Pravs on April 30th, 2007 5:26 pm

Have not heard of Arugula.Do you find these in india ? lovely presentation.
Sukanya Ramkumar on April 30th, 2007 8:23 pm

Hay Ur soup looks very nice…. It sounds simple…It is a great entry for JFI…I always use Arugula for making salads…never tried making it as a soup out of…I realy want to try it….
Sig on May 1st, 2007 2:21 am

Richa, yep almonds and peas help nuetralize the flavor, I don’t mind the strong taste, did it for my wimpy husband

KF, I had never heard of it either till I came here.

Coffee, good luck with the hunt, it is also known as rocket greens.

Roopa, thanks, as I said before it is known as rockets too…

Reena, yeah I saw that… I went with arugula because I saw most other greens were already covered.

Asha, yep, it is parsely, I used up all my arugula leaves, so used parsely for the garnish, looks pretty right? I got the arugula from our market too, only problem is it has to be washed extra well, stores have these pre-washed.

Musie, you should give greens a break… just came back from reading your greenfest.

Shn, it really is an aquired taste, if you like bittery leaves, you will love this too.

Pravs, I’m not sure if it is in India. But don’t take my word for it, when I was in India I only knew about cheera and muringa ila for leaves

Sukanya, if you like the taste already, then you would like this soup.
Sharmi on May 1st, 2007 7:15 pm

I have never tried arugula, your pic sure looks nice. Is it as bitter as methi leaves?
Sig on May 2nd, 2007 3:34 pm

Sharmi, it is definitely not as bitter as the methi leaves… Sorry, I don’t really know how to explain tge taste. Start with a mixed greens salad to make sure you like the taste before moving onto soup.