A Great Soup to Make with Loads of Leftover Spinach

Having all of my kids back home for Thanksgiving was the best!  But like a typical mom, I misjudged how much time they wanted to spend with me.  Here’s me:  “I’m so excited to spend lots of time with my kids over break!”  Here’s them: “I can’t wait to spend practically every minute of this break with my friends!”  Hence I was left with a huge amount of ingredients from what I thought I would be using to make a family weeknight dinner:  5 pieces of salmon and a HUGE 16 oz. container of organic baby spinach.

The salmon went in the freezer, but not wanting to waste the spinach, I decided to turn it into a soup that I hoped they would at least eat for lunch.  I couldn’t find a recipe that matched what I envisioned the soup to be:  a chicken broth soup with lots of spinach and brown rice. So I just made up my own recipe and it came out quite good, if I don’t say so myself!  And they did eat it/devour it for lunch!

So next time you get blown off by your kids and you have an excess of greens in the house, give this recipe a try!

Spinach and Brown Rice Soup

Course Soup
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Servings 6

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 carrots chopped
  • 4 shallots chopped
  • 1/2 onion chopped
  • 1 zucchini chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 12 oz. fresh baby spinach
  • 1 cup cooked brown rice
  • 4 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
  • 4 cups water
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan
  • 1 1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • fresh ground pepper
  • juice from 1/2 lemon

Directions

  1. Heat soup pot over medium high heat. Add oil.

  2. Saute carrot, shallots, onion and zucchini for 15 minutes until soft and lightly brown.

  3. Add garlic.  Saute for 1 minute.

  4. Add Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.  Saute 1 minute.

  5. Add broth and water.  Bring to boil.

  6. Lower heat and simmer at soft boil for 20 minutes until carrots are soft.  

  7. Add spinach and rice.  Stir until spinach is incorporated and wilted.  

  8. Cook 5 minutes.  Stir in lemon juice. Add parmesan.  Add more salt and pepper to taste.  

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