Iced Green Disco Soup Master Recipe

Now here’s a dish you can dance to! This chilled vegetarian soup, which is green in every way, was expressly created for Slow Food Youth Network’s World Disco Soup Day. Use it as a blueprint to make a delightful cold soup from whatever green things you happen to have in the crisper drawer (especially if some of those vegs used to be crisper!). It gets body from nuts, and you can use just about any kind, raw or toasted and salted. It also uses vegetable stock you make from trimmings to briefly cook hard vegetables like broccoli and blanch greens. If you don’t have any, you can use water.

Don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients — many are optional. I just wanted to accommodate anything appropriate you might want to toss in there.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Ingredients

1 cup walnuts, almonds, cashews or pine nuts (or a combination)

Peelings and ends from asparagus and/or broccoli trimmings and/or leek greens (optional)

1/2 pound mixed green vegetables that you’d normally cook, such as broccoli, bok choy and green beans

Greens from one bunch of radishes or from a bunch of turnips, or mustard greens, or a big handful of baby spinach and/or arugula or lettuces

Stems and nubbly bits from a bunch of parsley (about 2 cups stems and leaves), stems roughy chopped

1/4 cup mint leaves or other soft herb (optional)

3 celery stalks, roughly chopped

3 to 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1/2 serrano chile or jalapeño, roughly chopped (optional)

Any other green vegetables that are good eaten raw, such as sugar snap peas, cucumber and bell pepper, roughly chopped

1/4 cup plain yogurt (preferably whole milk or low-fat)

3 tablespoons sherry vinegar, white wine vinegar, Champagne vinegar or apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil, plus additional to drizzle on top

Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Herbs for garnish, such as dill, torn mint or basil, tarragon, snipped chives or chervil (optional)

Instructions

1. If your nuts are raw, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the nuts on a small baking sheet or in a pie tin and toast for 5 minutes. Set aside to let cool.

2. If you have peelings and trimmings from green vegetables, such as asparagus or broccoli, use them to make a vegetable stock. Place the trimmings in large saucepan with 3 cups water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to simmer, and cook the trimmings about 25 minutes, till the flavor is extracted into the water. Add 3/4 teaspoons salt and taste. If it tastes like something, it’s done — strain out the trimmings, pressing them to extract all the broth, and discard. (They have nothing left to give.)

3. If you don’t have trimmings, place 3 cups of water in a large saucepan with 3/4 teaspoons salt and bring to a boil.

4. Add the mixed green vegetables you’d normally cook to the vegetable stock or water in the sauce pan, and cook till just tender but still bright green, about 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the vegetable. Drop in the radish leaves, mustard greens or spinach, if using, and cook 1 more minutes. Let cool.

5. In the bowl of a food processor or blender, place the arugula or lettuces (if using), the parsley and mint or other herbs (if using), celery, garlic, serrano or jalapeño (if using), green vegetables you’d normally eat raw, yogurt, vinegar, olive oil, nuts, 1/2 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of white pepper. Process until smooth. If you need some liquid to loosen it up, add some of the liquid from the cooked vegetables. Transfer to a bowl, then process the cooked vegetables with their liquid till smooth. Stir to combine well, taste and adjust seasoning — adding more salt and white pepper as necessary.

6. Serve in small bowls with a couple of ice cubes, a drizzle of olive oil, and a few pretty herbs strewn on top if you have them.