SUNDAY   
        18 November 2007  
  
    Today’s lunch was an effort at the gourmet art of using leftovers. In the sorority house, we have a refrigerator with full-time access that is used to store the leftovers from our all-house meals. It is usually a store of delights and sometimes duds (not everybody likes spaghetti squash….more for me!). There has been a large plastic tub of red potatoes in the fridge for a couple days, and I didn’t want it to go to waste. So what else is there to be done but….potato soup!

    I searched around the internet for an interesting recipe, and came up with one that involved fennel and spinach (two of my favorite vegetables). I made a few tweaks of my own, and the final recipe is below:

Potato Soup (a la Margaret)

    4 T butter
    1/2 diced white onion
    1 tsp garlic
    1 T fennel seeds
    2-3 T flour
    3 cups chicken broth
    4 small-medium red potatoes, quartered
    1 cup fresh, chopped spinach
    1/2 tsp thyme
    1 tsp  sea salt
    1 tsp ground pepper
    1/2 c heavy cream

    Heat butter in a soup pot until melted and bubbling; add onions, garlic and fennel seeds. Cook until onion is translucent. Add flour slowly and continue stirring until mixture thickens. Stir in chicken broth, thyme, salt and pepper. Bring to a low boil. Add potatoes and heat until tender.

    When mixture has reached a boil, remove from stove and pour, cup by cup, into blender or Cuisinart. Pulse/blend until mixture is smooth. Pour soup back into pot on low heat, add spinach and cook until wilted.  Stir in heavy cream and any additional salt or pepper to taste. Enjoy!

    Serves 4.