Silky Lettuce Soup (pp. 117-118)

Hi. I'm Derrick and I'll be attempting a cook-through of 'Gourmet Today.'

I've settled on Silky Lettuce Soup for my first recipe. It jumped out at me for two reasons - It's got a base of onion and potato (more on this later), and it used coriander, one of my favorite spices.

Meez:

Lettuce, potato, onions, garlic, coriander, 1TB butter (to finish)

Procedure:

Sweat the onions and garlic in 2TB butter 'til soft. Add coriander, salt, and pepper. Stir. Add lettuce, potato, and 3C water. Bring to a boil, take it back down to a simmer, cover for 10 min.

Just prior to covering.

Then blend in batches, or go the stick route:

One of my favorite appliances.

Finish with salt, pepper, and your reserved TB of butter.

Plate and enjoy.

So, how was it?

Not bad. It was similar to the Potato-Onion soup in Vol. 1 of 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking.' The coriander does add a subtle dose of citrus while the lettuce gives it more body and a crispness.

What did you learn?

Maybe next time I'll reduce the amount of potatoes and increase the lettuce. I used a whole potato and about a head and a half of both green and red lettuce, respectively. I wanted more essence of lettuce. Also, I love my stick blender, even though it doesn't give as fine a texture to soups and the like. Less cleanup is also a nice factor. I'd recommend a blender for this if you're not feeling lazy.

Recommend it?

Sure, it's fast and tasty and a nice riff on the traditional potato-onion soup.