No matter how much you like salad, there is so much more you can do with lettuce!

March has truly lived up to its lion and lamb nature: some colder than average temperatures, a couple of surprise windstorms, The Pollening. Despair not, April will be flush with arugula, spinach, kale, and chard. There will be plenty of shoots, microgreens, radishes, beets, mushrooms, and if we are very lucky, late in the month, maybe some green tomatoes and broccoli.

Let’s start the year with a recipe you can make with items at the market this weekend. Salad and wilted greens are great during the high heat of summer, but with the Spring’s unpredictable weather wouldn’t an option that can offer a little bit of comforting warmth be great. Citizens, I bring you Farmer’s Market Soupe de Laitue (Lettuce Soup)!

The Chef’s Corner will be making and sampling this vegetarian delicacy as soon as we get a rain-free day, garnishing it with Bell Farms Bacon for the carnivores and pairing it with some Breadwaala Methi Focaccia. But give it a shot before then! Well Fed Community Garden will have plenty of lettuce this week, Ash with be there with his wonderful focaccia, and it’s the perfect weather for soup!

Soupe de Laitue – Serves 4
2 Tbs unsalted butter
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
8 ounces Lettuce Greens (pretty much anything goes here, whatever type you like)
2 Tbs cornstarch slurry (1 Tbs cornstarch mixed with 1 Tbs water)
1 cup loosely packed spinach or 1/4 cup chopped parsley.
¼ cup cream (optional)
Kosher salt

1. Melt butter in a soup pan and sauté onions and garlic until soft but not caramelized.
2. Add stock and the diced potato. Bring to a boil.
3. Reduce temperature and simmer until the potato is soft.
4. Add the lettuce and simmer for about 2 minutes more.
5. Add the slurry and the spinach, or parsley, and simmer for about 2 minutes more.
6. Purée the soup with an immersion blender in the pot, or by blending in batches in a blender. Be
careful, it’s hot.
7. If you are adding cream add it at this point and simmer for a minute longer.
Serve this soup either hot or cold, garnished with thin sliced radish, lemon wedges, or crispy bacon (or
try your hand with the vegan “bacon” listed below)

Pair this soup with nice sourdough bread or focaccia.  This week we have the Methi Focaccia from
Breadwaala.