Since discovering a few months ago when I made my courgette and broad bean soup with chilli and fennel, how wonderful chilli and fennel is as a combination, they’ve been added to most of my soups. Obviously (to me, anyway) chilli goes with everything and, although fennel isn’t to everyone’s taste, give it a go – just don’t add too much as it’s not a subtle flavour.
I used chilli powder and fennel seeds, as they’re already in my spice drawer, but you can use fresh if you like. As you’ll know, a huge bag of spinach wilts down quickly, so you can be enjoying this soup in about ten minutes. As you’ll also know, when a huge bag of spinach wilts down, you’re left with about a teaspoonful (slight exaggeration, possibly – maybe a tablespoon) of spinach, so this recipe isn’t going to feed you for a week (I had it for lunch for two days) so you might want to double the quantities.
You can of course experiment with different herbs and spices – I reckon smoked paprika would give it an interesting smoky flavour; I’m just a chilli freak.
- 1 tsbp olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 200g spinach
- 500ml vegetable stock
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- ½ tsp fennel seeds
- salt and pepper
- Heat the olive oil in a large pan, add the onions and garlic and fry until the onions are soft (3-4 minutes)
- Add the spinach and stock and stir until the spinach has wilted
- Add the chilli powder and fennel seeds and season with salt and pepper
- Simmer for a couple of minutes
- Blend with a stick blender until smooth or in a high powered blender (I used myFroothie blender) on high for 1 minute
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5 comments
Love the sound of this – one of my favourite things to eat at the moment is roasted cauliflower with fennel seeds – just the best flavour. Must try this soup soon as it sounds delicious!
I’ve only just started putting fennel in soup and now it goes in most of them! Having it roasted cauliflower sounds amazing 🙂