Curried Potato and Spinach Soup...

A bowl of soup - to me means something warm and tasty on a cold night. It’s a meal in itself, which takes little effort to prepare, as long as you remember these all important key points:

~ a good flavorful base
~ a decent stock, homemade or a good quality brand
~ balanced seasoning

After that, the simplest of ingredients can be added from a few potatoes, a bunch of fresh thyme and rosemary with onion and garlic, or some pumpkin puree that you froze for another day. Try a soothing Asian Miso soup with fish sauce... or grab a hearty ham hock with delectable meaty morsels and your favorite garden vegetables.

The brilliant thing about soup is that once the ingredients have been thrown in a pot, they can quietly bubble away while a loaf of sourdough warms in the oven. After an hour of doing what needs to be done, dinner is ready. Below is a soup I made up for just those cold nights:



Curried Potato and Spinach soup

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons butter
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely grated
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 to 2 teaspoons curry powder *
⅛ teaspoon thyme
4 cups chicken stock
1 ½ pounds potatoes, peeled
Salt & pepper to taste
1 cup fresh baby spinach

* This depends on how much you like curry

Melt the butter in a large pot then add the onion, carrot, garlic, curry powder and thyme. Stir while cooking for 4 to 7 minutes. Add the potatoes and seasoning. Then stir in the stock.

Simmer for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are falling apart. Add the spinach, stir through then turn off the heat. Ladle the soup into warmed soup bowls and serve with the garlic toast.

Serves 4

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On a health note:

I recently read an interesting study about curry. It said that curry may help kill cancer cells. A molecule found in the yellow curry spice turmeric may one day be used to treat cancer. Researchers found that esophageal cancer cells treated with curcumin, the substance that gives turmeric its yellow color, began dying within 24 hours. These data support previous research that suggests curcumin can suppress tumors and that people who eat lots of curry may have a reduced cancer risk. Esophageal cancers are particularly deadly and take the lives of more than a half a million people each year.

Here is the full article from LONDON (Reuters):

Scientists say curry compound kills cancer cells