Eat-Your-Greens soup

I love greens, it's just that fresh spinach, kale and bok choy are not available everywhere and all the time. What I always have available though, are frozen veggies. Contrary to popular belief frozen veggies don't taste bad at all and oftentimes have more nutrients than their cousins you buy at the grocery store.

Making cream soups is also very very easy with frozen veggies.

To make this soup, you need:
1 lb frozen broccoli
1 lb frozen spinach
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
1 small parsnip or potato, finely chopped
8 cups water
1 cup half and half (or half cup liquid heavy cream)
handful quinoa

Spices:
2 bay leaves
teaspoon asafetida
(or 2 cloves crushed, cooked in butter garlic)
teaspoon salt
2 tbsp butter

Place the veggies in the water and bring to a boil. After 15 minutes, set aside, let it cool off and blend with an immersion blender. Add the half and half or cream, salt and return to cook on medium heat. Add the handful of quinoa, too.

In a small pan, heat up the butter on medium heat, add and cook the bay leaves and asafetida (or crushed cloves of garlic). After 45-60 seconds, remove from the heat, discard of the leaves and pour some soup into the spice butter. Return this mixture into the large pot of boiling soup and after 8-10 minutes, the soup is ready.

Serve with cubes of cheese, bleu is my favorite. If you just worked out, you can add some crackers, too! This soup is very deep and earthy and carries the exotic notes of bay leaf and asafetida.

A note on Asafetida: You can get it at Asian markets, and in Sofia, you can buy it in the little Indian store on Малките Пет Кьошета.