Heart Healthy Foods: Savory Spinach Soup

There’s been a ton of e-mail asking for food suggestions and recipes. So, by popular demand, I’m going to start featuring recipes in the newsletter as often as possible.

By any definition of the term, spinach is a vegetable superstar. In addition to providing calcium and iron, it’s high in fiber and so low in calories that it’s virtually a “free” food on any diet. It’s also a great source of two nutrients from the carotenoid family that are the new superstars of eye nutrition- lutein and zeaxanthin.

Here’s one of my favorite recipes using spinach- it requires almost no prep time and zero cooking time, making it a winner from the point of convenience. And it’s a nutritional powerhouse. The recipe is from my book, “The Healthiest Meals on Earth”   (co-written with the marvelous cookbook author and health counselor, Jeannette Bessinger).

Hope you like!

Spinach Soup

Prep Time: 5-10 minutes

Cook Time: None

Ingredients:

4 cups (120g) baby spinach, well washed and dried

1 cup water

2-3 cloves roasted garlic or 1 clove raw garlic

1-2 teaspoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed

pinch of sea or Celtic salt

1 ripe avocado, cut in half and pitted

2 tablespoons crushed dry-roasted hazelnuts, crushed raw hazelnuts, or lightly toasted pine nuts

In a blender, place the spinach, water, garlic, lemon juice, and salt. Pack the spinach leaves down and then blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary.

Spoon the avocado out of its skin and into the blender and process again until smooth. Taste and add additional salt, garlic or lemon juice if necessary. Divide into 4 equal portions and garnish with the nuts.

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