The Little Hedgehog Cooks: Almond Soup with Sweet Potato, Collards and Ginger

One of the greens in my CSA box last week was Collard Greens. Now, I've seen plenty of recipes that call for sauteing collards with bacon or creating a cream casserole with them, but this past week, I stumbles upon a recipe that was a completely new idea to me! I was looking through recipes on the Whole Living magazine website and came across their recipe, Almond Chicken Soup with Sweet Potato, Collards, and Ginger. Almond Chicken Soup? Ginger? I was intrigued, and since I had most of the ingredients for it, I decided to try something new with my collard greens! The only two ingredients that I needed to go pick up were the ginger and sweet potato. Believe it or not, I've never actually cooked with ginger! The "root-y" look to it always kind of weird-ed me out and I never knew what to do with it. I could just see myself buying some ginger and then letting it shrivel up and dry out if my fridge from neglect. So, I decided to be brave, buy the ginger and learn how to put it to use!

*Sorry in advance for the lack of pictures! I was so skeptical about this recipe that I didn't take pictures during the cooking process (shame on me!) It wasn't until after I tried it that I realized how yummy it was! (lesson learned).*

Almond Soup with Sweet Potato, Collards, and Ginger

{recipe adapted from Whole Living's recipe}

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chicken stock (I used vegetable broth that my mom had made that had some of the cooked veggies pureed into it, so it was a bit thicker than your traditional broth)
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced (2 cups)
• optional: 8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces (I didn't have any chicken on hand, so I left it out)
• 1/2 cup smooth almond butter
• 1 cup collard green leaves, coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lime, cut into wedges

Directions:

Pour your vegetable broth (or chicken stock) in a large stockpot. Add the onion, garlic, and sweet potato and then bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer (add chicken, if you have it), then cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk the almond butter with 1/2 cup of the broth from the stockpot until you have a thick paste and then set it aside. I get almond butter at Sprouts, our local health food grocery store, where I can actually grind fresh almond butter with a machine that they have in the store! It's pretty cool and really yummy! You can also pick up jarred almond butter at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, etc.

Then, add the collard green leaves and ginger to the soup and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and let simmer, covered, for 5 minutes. Stir in the almond butter paste. Season with salt and pepper.

Ladle the soup into bowls, and squeeze with lime wedge. *The lime is actually really important. I was pretty skeptical about adding lime to my soup, so I tried the soupo before I added the lime and though, "....eh". Then I added the lime and it completely added new depth and a bit of "zing" to the soup! I couldn't believe what a little lime could do!*

Also, as a variation for little man (since I thought the collard greens and pieces of onion might be a bit much for him to chew), I took some of the soup, put it in a blender, added some tofu (for protein and because he loves it!) and blended it until it was smooth. Little man absolutely loved his "almond-lime soup" (as we called it) and chowed his whole bowl down!

Enjoy!