I am not happy with this cool weather because it is curtailing my happy time planting the garden. Soil is still too cold and the lettuce plants and Kale plants that I did plant are just sitting in protest wanting to be wrapped up in a warm blanket. It all works out because I ended up having time to go pick some fiddleheads and make a soup that warms that body!
Fiddlehead and Leek Soup
I used wild leeks that are abundant in our forest and instead of green onions I dug up some green garlic from my garden. Green garlic is garlic that has gone to seed from last summer, has self seeded itself, and is growing like crazy all over my garden, perfect to use like green onions.
After picking the fiddleheads the most time consuming job is to wash them well, to remove the brown scales.
2 cups fiddleheads
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
2 large potatoes peeled and diced
1 cup sliced leeks (white portion only) if you are using wild leeks use the whole plant
1 cup sliced green onions or green garlic
2 cloves garlic chopped if you are not using green garlic
1/4 butter or coconut oil or sunflower seed oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1 cup vegetable broth
2 cups cream (heavy or half and half) or canned coconut milk
1. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat and add the mushrooms, leeks, celery, and garlic. Cook until the mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the potatoes and the vegetable stock, cover and simmer about 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Add the fiddleheads and simmer until they are tender about another 10 minutes. Cool slightly.
3. Puree in a blender or use an immersion blender (one of my favourite kitchen tools)
4. Add enough cream to desired consistency. Heat just until hot and season with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper.
5. Serve garnished with croutons or fresh chives.
