Spinach Soup with Goat's Cheese Toasts

I LOVE soup and I LOVE making soup in my Le Creuset Round Dutch Oven in the best color ever...Lemongrass. It sits on top of my stove always and gets used frequently. There is something about stirring whatever ingredients I have together in this big, solid pot that just make it taste all the better. This is a soup recipe I cut out from a magazine--unfortunately I am bad about noting which magazines my recipes come from, but I am going to guess either Good Food or Fresh from the UK.

Spinach Soup with Goat's Cheese Toasts
Serves 6, Prep time 10 minutes, Cooking time 20 minutes

30g Butter (a smidge over 2 Tbsps)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 medium potatoes, peeled, diced
500 grams frozen spinach, thawed (about 18 ounces or I just used two 10oz packs)
4 cups (1 liter) chicken stock
1/2 cup (125 ml) cream

Goat's Cheese Toasts
8 baguette slices, toasted
1 garlic clove, halved
100g (3.5 ounces) soft goat cheese
1 Tbsp snipped chives

1) Melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Saute' onion and garlic for 3 minutes until soft. Stir in potato and spinach. Add stock and bring to boil. Simmer on low heat for 15 minutes, until potato is tender. Cool slightly. Puree with a hand blender, stir in cream and season to taste. Reheat on low.

2) Meanwhile, make Goat's Cheese Toasts. Rub baguette slices with cut sides of garlic. Top with cheese, chives and a grind of pepper. Serve with soup.

The soup was good; a pretty basic spinach soup. When/if I make it again I will probably add some curry to the recipe to give it a bit more punch. I had to cook it about 25 minutes to get the potatoes tender--so dice them pretty small if you want to do it quicker. I used a seeded baguette and some garlic-chive goat cheese I had for the croutons and they really elevated the flavor of the soup, as did the lemon juice I squeezed in the soup at the end to brighten up the flavors. Not sure why you would be making 8 toasts for the 6 people the soup says it serves--unless you have two favorite people who get two toasts each, but you could make more or less toasts easily. (I would recommend more!)

A good soup for a lazy afternoon...