Green Soup

This is my all-time favourite soup – I could eat it every day. I love the colour, and the wonderfully nourishing mung beans, peas and spinach are just so healthy. You know what they say, ‘If you’re going to gorge... gorge on green.’

(Serves 6)

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons ghee or extra virgin olive oil
• 1 bunch spring onions, chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3 celery sticks, chopped
• 1 leek, white part only, rinsed and roughly chopped
• 250g mung beans, soaked overnight in water with 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, drained
• 1 litre vegetable stock
• 1 cup fresh or frozen green peas
• 1 bunch spinach, silverbeet, rocket or kale (stalks removed and leaves roughly chopped)
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
• buckwheat and black sesame crispbread to serve
• gremolata

Method

To make the green soup, heat the ghee in a large heavy-based soup pot over medium heat. Add the spring onion, garlic, celery and leek and cook until softened. Add the mung beans and stock and cook for 20 minutes, or until the mung beans are soft and squishy.

Add the peas, spinach, salt and white pepper to the pot and cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and blend with a stick blender until smooth. Add a little water if the soup is too thick. (Alternatively, you can transfer to a blender and blend until smooth, then return to the pot and reheat before serving.)

Adjust the seasoning as required, divide the soup between bowls and serve with the gremolata on top and some buckwheat and black sesame crispbread.