I am not joking, this soup took 10 minutes from start to finish and was incredibly delicious. It was also the perfect lockdown lunch: it was pretty (something that I need even more these days than usual) and filling, without my feeling that I was adding too many extraneous calories to the daily count.
I invented it on the spur of the moment because one of the cats reminded me that it was lunchtime and, while looking in the fridge for something for me to eat, I found some carrots and the red chard stems that I had leftover from last night's medley of leafy greens. This post is more for inspiration purposes than a "you must follow these directions" recipe since you can substitute ingredients as you wish - stock instead of water, pickle brine or vinegar instead of pickled ginger brine, a different herb for the mint, a mix of seeds, furikake, or even simply regular granola for the savory granola with nori which I just happened to have in the pantry, capers or chopped cornichons instead of sushi ginger...up to you!
This is a recipe for lunch for one, rather than my usual recipe for 4 portions.
6 thin young carrots or 2 regular-sized ones
stems from 1 bunch of red chard
1 cup boiling water or stock
2 tsps brine from a jar of pickled ginger (the kind used for sushi) or some other acidic liquid like pickle brine or vinegar
2 Tbsps sour cream
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1 Tbsp nori granola or something that will add crunch to the soup
2 tsps julienned mint leaves or your favorite herb
2 tsps roughly chopped pickled ginger or, as mentioned in the intro, capers or pickles of some sort. Kimchi would work too come to think of it.
Wash and trim the carrots (if they are organic there is no need to peel them).
Place them in the microwave without drying them and microwave on high, 3 minutes fro the thin carrots and 5 minutes for the regular sized ones.
While the carrots are cooking, chop and measure your garnish, boil your liquid and prep your chard stems.
Rinse the chard stems and cut off the bottom ends where the plant was cut when picked. These are usually a bit dried out as compared to the rest of the plant. Place the wet chard stems on top of the carrots and microwave for an additional 90 seconds.
If using thin young carrots, set aside the thinnest one for garnish. If using regular-sized carrots, cut a carrot stick the size of your soup bowl down the length of one carrot and reserve for later.
Put the remaining carrots, the chard stems and your hot liquid in the blender and blend until as smooth as possible. Add salt, the pickled ginger brine and the sour cream and blend until completely combined. Squeeze in the lemon juice and blend one more time. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
Pour the liquid into a soup bowl. Lay your carrot or carrot stick along the surface and sprinkle the three garnishes (herb, crunch, pickle) over the surface.
And, in case you were wondering how a cat reminds a person of lunchtime, here is one way:
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