Monday, February 21, 2011

ginger potato soup

I got the idea for this soup when I ate an instant version.

Knorr Japan has a creamy ginger potage which we tried and when I looked at the ingredients, I thought, "I could make this".

The weather is starting to slowly warm up during the daytime, but the nights are still cold, so I wanted to try making this soup before the weather totally warms up.

The potatoes really help thicken up the soup.

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try:
Kat's ginger potato soup :serves about 4

1 tablespoon canola oil
3 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 can of SPAM, chopped
1/3 carrot, chopped
1 nub (about 1/4 inch thick) ginger, chopped small
1.5 cups water
1 consomme cube
1 small bunch of spinach, cleaned and chopped
2 cups skim milk
grinds of pepper, to taste

Saute the onions, spam, carrot and potato in oil until onions are transparent
Add ginger, water and consomme
Cook on high for 15 minutes or until potatoes are soft
Turn heat down to simmer and add spinach and milk
Cook on low for another 3 minutes, just to wilt spinach and heat milk.
Turn off heat.
Add pepper and whizz with immersion blender.
When serving add another couple grinds of pepper.

NOTES: I had some SPAM leftover so I used it in this recipe. If you don't like SPAM, I think bacon would also be nice in this soup. The original soup doesn't have spinach in it, but I had some and wanted to use it.

The original also had some cheese in it, but I didn't put any in it, though if you want a richer soup, adding some cheese or even some cream would be good choices.

Be sure to whizz your soup well, you wouldn't want to bite into ginger. If you want to strain this soup, you could, but I didn't, wanting to eat all the fiber and nutrients. This soup is spicy and will definitely warm you up. This is a keeper for winter.

I'm sending this to Deb for her Souper Sundays, a great array of soups, salads & sammies.

UPDATE: this soup is delicious served cold too, like vichyssoise.

11 comments:

jalna said...

SPAM! My favorite! How innovative of you.

Dennis K. said...

I used to have knorr corn potage all the time. Just add hot water! :) Your scratch made looks great.

K and S said...

was actually gonna make corn chowder Jalna, but thought about trying something new :)

the corn potage is Satoshi's fave Dennis :)

Take care you two.
Kat

Deb in Hawaii said...

It's always great to recreate something and make it even better. Thanks for sharing this at Souper Sundays--it looks delicious. ;-)

K and S said...

thanks Deb in Hawaii, I always look forward to see what everyone else is making :)

Take care.
Kat

Japan Australia said...

Sounds really nice and could be easily made with a few different combinations such as bacon and other root vegetables.

Rowena said...

You are great at using up leftovers in the fridge. Most times leftovers become my lunch so that scratches creativity, but I saw this pic on flickr....pinakbet pizza! Omigod I just gotta try that - it sounds so weird in a way but still doable.

Rowena said...

Oh...forgot to add that I made your kimu-taku yakimesh recipe. ONO!

K and S said...

so true J-A :)

pinakbet pizza hmm, interesting Rowena, will wait to see it on your blog :) glad you liked the kimu-taku yakimeshi :)

Take care you two.
Kat

Kathy YL Chan said...

the soup sounds perfect for the crazy weather we've been having! I just got an new hand blender last month...will put it to good use with this recipe! :)

K and S said...

hope you like this Kathy, I just saw on the news that you guys were having another snowstorm, that is nuts!

Take care.
Kat