This is a pretty quick, and very delicious recipe made from left over ingredients I had from various other cooking sessions, including baby yukon gold potatoes from a poached salmon dish, spinach left over from a side salad for a steak, and thick-cut bacon from … well, breakfast.
Grab your immersion blender, it’ll come in handy for this one. If you don’t have one, a regular blender will do. Here goes …
Prep time: 5-10 mins
Cook time: 10-15 mins
Servings: ~2-4
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients:
0.5 – 1 lb potatoes (baby Yukon golds work well)
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
2 cups baby spinach
5 slices thick cut bacon
1 tbsp salt
0.5 tbsp rosemary
1 tbsp oregano
1 cube chicken bullion
3 cups water
4 tbsp cooking wine (optional)
1 cup croutons (optional)
Method:
- Slice bacon to about 1 cm width – optionally trim the bacon if you want it to be leaner, but then again, bacon without the fat is just stale meat!
- Dice onion (about 2 cups)
- Smash / mince garlic
- Begin bringing a medium sized soup pot (one as tall or taller than it is wide) to temperature over medium heat, so that water sizzles when sprinkled
- As pot is heating, clean and dice potatoes (about 2 cups)
- When pot has come to temperature, add bacon tossing occasionally to brown and render (3-5 mins)
- Once bacon has browned, remove and set aside leaving bacon grease in pot – feel free to remove some grease if you want, but you’ll be adding enough liquid that it won’t be oily or greasy
- Lower heat to med-low, and season oil with oregano, rosemary, and garlic for a minute or so
- Add onions to sweat until translucent and tender
- Increase heat to high and deglaze pot with cooking wine if using, otherwise use about a cup of water getting all the good, browned bits at the bottom of the pot
- Add potatoes and half the bacon – toss well, cook until potatoes are tender (5-10 mins)
- Add remaining water, chicken bullion, bringing liquid to boil with hand torn spinach (10 mins)
- Remove from heat for a few minutes, then blend (carefully) to desired consistency
- Be careful of splatter as liquid will be hot. If you’re using a regular blender, be sure not to fill to the top and also do not seal fully as blending increases the volume and also releases steam which could cause a build up of pressure if not vented.
- Plate in bowls, top with remaining bits of bacon and croutons
Enjoy!
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