Provencal Greens Soup

Traditionally this soup uses any greens collected from nature or you can use purchased greens. Wild greens such as nettles, plantain, water cress, or dandelions are often used. This soup is not usually pureed but I decided to puree mine.

Greens I used I purchased from the farmer's market. These are green garlic; garlic which hasn't yet formed a hard bulb and is much milder than garlic cloves. Sometimes leeks are used.

 Here is a bunch of swiss chard I used.

And a large bunch of kale and collard greens were also used. A farmer friend gave these to me. Below is the soup before puree. I started by sauteing the chopped green garlic and a few cloves of regular garlic. When they were soft I added the chopped swiss chard stems. Next I added half a cup of water to wilt the chard, kale, and collard greens which I chopped chiffonade style. I discarded any overly large tough stems.

This was a big batch of greens so I added 10 cups of water, thyme, basil, rosemary, and pepper. Very little salt if any is needed since the greens contains quite a bit of sodium naturally. Cook over medium for 30 minutes. Add two large chopped potatoes and cook till soft. Cool soup till you can place in a blender to puree or use an immersion blender.

Beat two eggs and temper them and add to the soup slowly stirring constantly. I added 3/4 cup of half and half, a dash of sherry and worcestershire. My soup was a bit thin so I added one tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with water. Then I reheated the soup to thicken and cook the starch. Serve with some grated parmesan or some garlic croutons. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.