cream of spinach soup and creamy rosemary potato soup

I had the best soup ever last night. I hate spinach, but I love cream of spinach soup. I had it for the first time at a little bakery while we were on our honeymoon. I eat it every chance I get. Unfortunately, the bakery once serves it once a week, on a Tuesday or Wednesday, when it's usually impossible for us to drive out there. I've been meaning to learn to make it for months now, but I'm always intimidated by cooking real food. Moreover, when I get home from work, I'm starving and I want something that tastes good *now*, not something that might taste good in an hour or two. So I almost never cook dinner. We live on tomato sandwiches, toast, and cold cereal.

Anyway, I picked up some spinach last week, intending to make soup on the weekend. I just never got around to it, though. Hanging out with B and J and eating curry and then celebrating Mother's Day all sounded like more fun than cooking soup.

Last night, though, I had a major craving for cream of spinach soup. So I decided to give it a try. I pulled out my faithful America's Test Kitchen Best Recipes and was dismayed to find that they had no cream of spinach soup and no real cream soups to speak of. I decided to give my Julia books a try, even though my irrational fear of Julia's recipe is far greater than my irrational fear of cooking dinner.

If all of Julia's recipes are as straightforward as that soup, my fears were entirely unfounded. I have never cooked a dinner that was so fast and easy and tasted so good. A little sauteeing, a little boiling, a little mixing, and I had a wonderful, creamy, buttery bowl of spinach soup, every bit as good as the bakery's. It was so easy that I went ahead and used the base to make a batch of rosemary potato soup, as well. Julia's recipe says it serves six, so I doubled both batches.


Cream of Spinach Soup (Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1, Julia Child)

5 TB butter
1/3 C onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
3-4 C spinach leaves, chiffonaded
5 1/2 C chicken stock, boiling
3 TB flour
2 egg yolks
1/2 C cream

Saute onion in 3 TB butter until soft and translucent but not browned. Add spinach leaves and salt. Cover and cook on low until wilted, about 3 minutes. Stir in flour and cook over medium for 5 minutes. Off heat, whisk in chicken broth.

Mix together egg yolks and cream in large bowl. Temper by whisking in 1 C of hot soup. Whisk in remaining soup in a steady stream. Finish by mixing in remaining 2 TB of butter (should be room temperature). (If you are planning to serve soup cold, do not add remaining butter.)













Rosemary Potato Soup (adapted from Julia Child's cream of spinach soup)

5 TB butter
1/3 C onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
6 regular potatoes, peeled
3 TB flour
5 1/2 C chicken stock, boiling
2 egg yolks
1/2 C cream
2-3 tsp. fresh rosemary (or to taste)

Saute onion in 3 TB butter until soft and translucent but not browned. Stir in flour and cook over medium for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Chop two of the potatoes into chunks. Cook in broth until soft. Remove from broth. Rice into onion mixture. Add salt. Mix well.

Slice remaining potatoes and add to broth. Add rosemary. Cook until potatoes are soft.

Gradually whisk about half of the broth into the potatoes. Pour this into the remaining broth and stir.