The Springiest Soup

A timely, delicious recipe swap with Susan Spungen

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Images by Susan Spungen

Welcome to today’s Stories from Catbird Cottage! I have a very fun newsletter for you all today: Food legend Susan Spungen and I are trading places and we’re both sharing a dish-for-right-now, packed with beauty and flavor. You may recall, she made a guest appearance with a few other notable women in food a while back, each one sharing their favorite ingredients. You can check out that installment, right here. And yesterday, we had a fabulous time on our Substack Live, talking about all things SPRING - thanks to all who joined! You can check out our conversation, here.

Today, she’s taking the reins with a spring soup to brighten your day. Be sure to visit her newsletter for a look at my recipe - I hope you’ll find yourself compelled to make both!

If you don’t already know Susan, she’s the real deal. Like me, she is a cook, food stylist, recipe developer, and author. She was the founding food editor at Martha Stewart Living from 1991-2003. She was also the culinary consultant and food stylist on the films Julie & Julia, It’s Complicated, and Eat, Pray, Love. No big deal! ;) She is the author of multiple books, including Open Kitchen, and Veg Forward. Susan has a new book coming out this fall: Cookie Queen - you can pre-order it here. Susan, take it away!

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Hello Stories from Catbird Cottage readers! I am so happy to be here today, doing this fun spring recipe swap with Melina. If you don’t already read my newsletter, you can have a look at it over here, and hope you’ll consider subscribing if you like today’s recipe.

When Melina and I brainstormed about what recipes we wanted to swap, my thought immediately went to something spring-y green and fresh. I (and I am guessing you too) am always craving the newness of spring, especially after the rough winter we had here on the east coast. Usually I can clip some herbs to use in my cooking all winter long, especially the thyme and sage which seem to hold on no matter how cold it gets, but this winter I couldn’t even traverse the 10 feet or so on my deck to get to them. Once it snowed, it just kept snowing. And not melting. Our composter was similarly inaccessible.

As I write this, it is still stubbornly chilly out here on the east end of Long Island, and yes, soup is still very much on the menu. This week, we will have nighttime temperatures in the 40’s, and the daytime highs are barely above 60! C’mon spring! Despite the cool weather, spring is definitely springing! It is always kind of miraculous to me how fast everything grows! The first thing that appears here is asparagus, but you have to know where to look! There’s an honor system farm stand with an ancient Chock Full o’ Nuts coffee can for your money. The lid is held together with multiple layers of duct tape. Every year, I think there will be a new coffee can, but no. It’s definitely part of the charm.

This past Friday, my nearest farm stand opened, and I decided I would make this soup, using what I could find there. Usually on opening day, they have a few different kinds of spring onions, but this time they had only green garlic, which I was more than happy to see. Sadly, no spring onions, but I did find them somewhere else. I used leeks from the grocery store and also bagged shelled peas, which were pretty good. A bit starchier I’m sure, than freshly shelled peas, but those won’t be along for a good couple of weeks yet. You could add frozen peas to this soup too, but add them at the very end, just to warm them through and avoid overcooking.

The goat cheese toasts are a nod to French Onion Soup, but instead of a large amount of bread and gooey Gruyère baked on top, a single toast floats on top, soaking up some of the soup. Or just serve the toasts on the side.

I hope you enjoy this warming yet light soup, and I hope to see you over on Susanality!

The Springiest Soup
Serves 4 to 6

This lovely pale green soup makes the most of the variety of spring onions you’ll find in your farmer’s market this time of year, but you can make it with supermarket onions too. Just go for a variety of alliums, like leeks, shallots, scallions, white onions, etc. Whatever you can find! The spring-y green color comes from pureeing about one cup of the soup with a handful of parsley, basil, or even baby spinach in a high speed blender and then stir that back into the soup for that fresh color and flavor. If you’re feeling indulgent, finish the soup with a little heavy cream.