Weed Soup
This deeply nourishing, deeply hydrating soup is quick, delicious, and extra fun with flowers on top. You can make this anytime of year with any wild or domestic greens you have on hand. Most greens are more easily digested, and their nutrients more bioavailable, when they are cooked.
I’m laying out the basic format here; you can use proportions that seem right, and dress it up however you like. It’s best if this soup is served fresh each time, rather than leftover.
INGREDIENTS
Broth - bone broth, mushroom broth, or veggie broth. I regularly make chicken bone broth from pastured chicken frames from a local farm, cooked in the crockpot for two or three days with a 1/4 cup vinegar and some veggies and garlic thrown in for the last 5 or 6 hours. Pro tip: make a big batch of broth, freeze it in freezer trays, then transfer the cubes to freezer bags so you can thaw as much or as little as you need.
Miso Paste - use white miso for a lighter, sweeter flavor; red miso for a darker, richer flavor. Miso paste is a living food full of probiotics. It lasts a really long time in the fridge, and even high quality organic brands are very affordable.
Weeds / Greens- Today I used violet leaves, dandelion leaves, chickweed, deadnettle, and a little kale from the garden. All the weeds were found in my suburban yard. You can use any weeds or greens you have on hand. Rinse your weeds and greens and chop them up small.
Eggs - again, pastured FTW! Those deep orange yolks are full of nutrients, and they taste so much better.
Flair - Spice and garnish to your heart’s and tongue’s content. I used minced garlic and ginger for flavor, and for added micronutrients violet and redbud flowers (they are high in Vitamin C and exploding all over Asheville right now!)
DIRECTIONS
Bring the broth to a boil, then turn down to simmer. If it’s very strong broth you can dilute it with some water. Use a bowl’s worth of broth for each serving you want to make.
Poach the eggs. You can do this in the broth or in separate water. I like 2 eggs per bowl of soup. Set the eggs aside when done.
Add seasonings to the broth and simmer for 5 minutes. Since we’re using quality broth and miso, tread lightly with your seasoning so you don’t overdo it.
Add your wild and domestic greens to the soup and simmer on low for 10-15 minutes, until they start to take on a deeper green color and are quite soft.
While the greens are simmering, put some miso paste in a mug. I use 1-2 teaspoons of miso per bowl of soup. Using a ladle, put some broth from the pot into the mug and stir it up. This allows the miso some time to melt, making it easier to stir into the soup, and helps the probiotic organisms warm up without being killed by boiling temperatures.
When the greens are cooked thoroughly, remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the miso.
Ladle broth and greens into bowls.
Add the poached eggs to each bowl, and garnish with flowers.
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