A mistake isn't a mistake if you turn it into something wonderful, right? Or something delicious, like this cheeky spring soup - which I intended to be a luscious dill sauce side dish to go with boiled potatoes. Except the sauce had other plans … and turned out too runny. Disappointed, I tasted it ... just one spoonful. Then two. Three ...
When I finally realized that I had stopped counting (and the sauce soup was half gone), I knew: This tastes so good, it could become a new standard recipe in our house. And so it did. When the dill season starts in April, we enjoy the soup regularly - as an appetizer or a light main course with a piece of good farmhouse bread.
By the way, the culinary world is full of accidental discoveries! Popsicles, for example, can be traced back to an 11-year-old American who forgot his lemonade and wooden spoon on the frosty porch overnight. On the other hand, potato chips are not the product of scatterbrainedness but of revenge: Legend has it that a chef served up wafer-thin, crispy chips to a nagging restaurant guest for whom the fried potatoes were never thin enough - and the guest was absolutely delighted.
But let's get back to my happy accidental recipe. I am not afraid to use up a massive bunch of dill, which can be as big as a small flower bouquet. The good thing is that even the dill stalks go into the soup (very finely chopped). Nothing goes to waste.
Speaking of using resources sparingly: Instead of using plain water as the base for the soup, I use the water in which I cooked vegetables for another dish. Dill flavor is so dominant that it will stay in the foreground even if I use the cooking water of potatoes, asparagus, or even watermelon rind. Vegetable broth works, too. Dill flavor is persistent in a good, tasty way - that's why I call this dill cream soup "cheeky."
Cheeky spring dish: Cream of dill soup
Ingredients
- 1 large bunch of dill
- 1 liter of water or vegetable cooking water
- 2 tablespoons potato or corn starch
- 1 tablespoon tapioca starch* alternatively potato or corn starch
- 250 ml vegan cream
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
- Wash the dill, cut off the ends and chop the whole bunch (including the stems) very finely.
- Mix cold water (or vegetable cooking water) with the starch and bring to a boil, constantly stirring with a whisk until the liquid begins to thicken.
- Turn off the heat, then stir the chopped dill, the cream, and the nutmeg into the soup.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Notes
Leave a Reply