Artichoke Soup

Artichoke Soup Recipe

It was raining here in Los Angeles, and I felt like making soup since I had artichokes - they were going bad soon.

INGREDIENTS
The hearts from 5 large artichokes
7 Tbsp butter
1 medium size leek, white-and-light green part, sliced and rinsed
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup chopped shallots (or yellow onion, if shallots aren’t available) I used a mix of shallots & onions!
8 oz of Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced
12 cups of vegetable or chicken stock (if cooking gluten-free, use gluten-free stock)
1/2 bay leaf
2 sprigs thyme
4 sprigs of parsley
1/4 teaspoon cracked black peppercorns
1/2 cup of cream
Salt to taste

METHOD
1 Prepare the artichoke hearts. Cut the artichokes lengthwise into quarters. With a small knife, remove the thistley choke part and discard. Cut away the leaves from the artichoke heart and reserve for steaming and eating later if desired (why waste perfectly good artichoke leaves?). Cut or peel away the tough outside skin of the stems and discard. When I made this dish I left an inch to two inches of stem with each of the hearts with no problem. Slice the hearts or chop to a quarter inch thickness.
2 In a large pot, melt half of the butter and cook the artichoke hearts, leek, garlic, and shallots on medium heat until tender but not brown. Add the potatoes and stock. Tie up the bay leaf, thyme, parsley, and peppercorns in cheesecloth and add to the pot. Increase heat to bring to a simmer, then lower heat and continue to simmer uncovered, 1 hour.
3 Remove and discard the herbs. Purée the soup and pass it through a fine strainer. When ready to serve, heat the soup and whisk in the remaining butter and the cream. Season with salt (I found none was needed) and serve.
Serves 8.




Click here to learn how to trim an artichoke 

I had all the ingredients the recipe called for.
I love that painting of onions & garlic.

Butter heating in the pan.

Leeks, shallots & onion cut up, before they go in the pan. 

Butter melted in my grandmother's pan - this is the pan I make soup in.

Shallots, onions, leeks & artichoke hearts getting cooked until they are tender not browned. 

Here is what shallots, onions, leeks & artichoke hearts look like while cooking.

 I made my own bags out of cheesecloth  for the herbs.

 
Here is the bag of herbs in the cooking process.

I used my handy hand mixer in the pot to puree the entire soup.

 Butter & cream

Artichoke in one of my bowls with parsley around it instead of flowers which I did not have. Be creative!

 
Here is the finished artichoke soup.
The soup was wonderful and great on a rainy cold day in Los Angeles.
Let me know how you liked the artichoke soup, dear readers.

Have a wonderful weekend!



Love,


Peggy




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