Creamy spinach soup

Creamy spinach soup

The lovely, leafy spinach in this recipe makes for a flavoursome and intriguing bright-green soup

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking times

Ready 1¼ hours
Vegetarian Freezable

Vegetarian

  1. Video tutorial: Making soup

Method

  1. Melt the butter in a large lidded saucepan, add the onion and garlic and fry gently for 5-6 minutes until softening. Stir in the potato and continue to cook gently for 1 minute. Pour in the stock and simmer for 8-10 minutes until the potato starts to cook. Pour in the milk and bring up to a simmer, then stir in half the spinach and the lemon zest. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes until the spinach has completely wilted down. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes.
  2. Pour the soup into a blender (preferably) or food processor, add the remaining spinach (this will keep the soup bright green and fresh tasting) and process until silky smooth - you may need to do this in batches depending on the size of your machine. (The soup may now be frozen for up to 1 month. Defrost in the microwave or overnight in the fridge. The soup may lose some of its vibrancy on freezing, but the flavour won't be impaired.) Return to the pan and reheat. Taste and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. You may like to dilute the soup with a little extra stock if too thick. Ladle the soup into bowls and swirl in the cream
Try

Getting it bright green

The secret of a fresh-flavoured, bright green soup is to cook half the spinach briefly in the soup for depth of flavour, then add the remaining raw spinach when liquidising.

Per serving

226 kcalories, protein 10g, carbohydrate 17g, fat 14 g, saturated fat 8g, fibre 3g, salt 1.22 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, March 2004.

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Taste team comment

'This makes a lot - but leftovers can be frozen. I enjoyed watching the colour develop, liked the hint of lemon, and a swirl of cream made it look super.'

Latest comments and suggestions

Results 1-20

  • 06 November 2007

    lyndsey rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Really healthy but so tasty considering the amount of ingredients. Definitely worth reserving half of the spinach as this makes the soup so flavourful. And as this is freezable, you can have this as a super healthy standby in the freezer for the kids! (not to mention the adults - you definitely feel good and healthy after this soup)

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  • 14 November 2007

    kyoko rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • 20 November 2007

    Kernow Cook rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Really lovely, I used semi skimmed milk and added a dollop of philly soft cream cheese (needed using up) at the same time and did not serve it with cream. Thinking of making a couple of batches now and keeping in freezer in indervidual portions so can quickly defrost and use it for unexpected visitors over Christmas time.

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  • Binder photo Sam

    11 January 2008

    Sam rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Lovely soup and it freezes well.

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  • Binder photo Eva

    07 February 2008

    Eva rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    This is a great soup and I woud recommend it to any unexperienced cook. But please don't freeze and/or reheat the soup. Reheated spinach contains high(er) levels of nitrites, that in the stomach will be transformed into carcinogenic nitrosamine. Spinach is really healthy, but only fresh from the stove!

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  • 20 February 2008

    Elaine rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    I actually found this a bit bland but without the cream it is a nice healthly starter and the kids loved the fact that it was bright green!

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  • 05 March 2008

    Louise's commented on this recipe

    Really tastey, didnt use as much butter as it said as it seemed like a lot! Really creamy tasing - even without the cream! Four VERY generous servings!

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  • 18 April 2008

    Susan rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Absolutely delicious! I'll definitely be making this again. I didn't use as much spinach as the recipe said as I made it in the attempt to use up what spinach I did have left, but I think it was perfect!

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  • Binder photo Lou

    08 August 2008

    Lou commented on this recipe

    I had some spinach which I needed to use up so I thought I'd give this soup a go - and I'm so glad I did as it is delicious! As I'm trying to lose weight I didn't use butter, but just used a teaspoon of vegetable oil instead, and I used skimmed milk and didn't add the cream. The result was still a lovely, healthy, fresh tasting soup! I will definitely be making this again and have already passed the recipe on to relatives!

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  • Binder photo Lou

    08 August 2008

    Lou rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • 31 August 2008

    meggie_cleary commented on this recipe

    My mother loves this soup and I make it on a regular basis

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  • 23 September 2008

    markhickin rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • 15 October 2008

    Fliss commented on this recipe

    I

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  • 15 October 2008

    Fliss rated and commented on this recipe

    1 stars

    oops! Yeah i followed the recepie but both my husband and i found this soup very salty and not very yummy atall! Maybe we just don't like spinach?

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  • 24 November 2008

    Suzi commented on this recipe

    I made this soup due to the glut of spinach I currently had in my garden. It did not disappoint and I was extremely pleased with the end product. This soup improves overnight - if possible - and does not even need the cream, it is perfect and tasty without. Suzi Lawrence

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  • 03 December 2008

    Carley463 commented on this recipe

    I've tried other spinach soup recipes and i thought they were all a bit bland but this one is so tasty adding the remaining half of the raw spinach at the end made a huge difference to the colour and the flavour. I had some left over asparagus so i added that and had some left over white wine so i cooked the onions and garlic with the wine don't know how much i changed the flavour of the recipe by doing this but it was amazingly yummy, would recommend.

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  • 05 January 2009

    Henni rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Colour is fantastic, very tasty and all that spinach is good for you too, especially if you leave out the cream as I did! will definitely make again.

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  • 18 January 2009

    Hel - Brit in Beijing commented on this recipe

    I haven't tried this yet but I can only get frozen spinach out here... could anyone give me any suggestions on how I cook this with frozen spinach? Thanks

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  • 05 February 2009

    weekary commented on this recipe

    Trying it with frozen right now. Will let you kow Hel-Brit how it tastes and what my partner thinks.

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  • 05 February 2009

    weekary rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    It was fabulous with the frozen spinach. I didn't add cream, used semi skimmed milk and added in a small amount of oft cheese at the end. Delicious!!

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking times

Ready 1¼ hours
Vegetarian Freezable

Vegetarian

Soup with style

Ingredients

  • 50g butter
  • 1 medium onion , finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves , finely chopped
  • 1 medium potato , peeled and chopped into chunks
  • 450ml chicken or vegetable stock
  • 600ml milk
  • 450g fresh spinach , washed if necessary and roughly chopped
  • finely grated zest of half a lemon
  • freshly grated nutmeg , to taste
  • 3 tbsp double cream , to serve
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Per serving

226 kcalories, protein 10g, carbohydrate 17g, fat 14 g, saturated fat 8g, fibre 3g, salt 1.22 g

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