Artichoke Soup

If you like artichokes, you’ll really enjoy this soup. Our artichokes in the garden have begin to come into season now and this soup is a nice way to enjoy them.

Ingredients:

• 6 artichokes
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 medium potato, peeled
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 spring onions, the white parts and a bit of the green
• 4 cups vegetable bouillon
• few sprigs fresh thyme
• freshly ground pepper
• optionally soy mild, soy cream or soy yogurt
• greens as garnish-I used thyme and three colored sage leaves

Directions:

1. Bring about 1 inch of water with salt and 1 tablespoon lemon juice to boil in a large pot with a tight fitting lid.
2. Clean the artichokes cut the stems and thorns off. Set them in the pot with the stem side down and cook for 15-20 minutes until the leaves are soft and come away from the choke.
3. Trim the dark outer leaves off, cut the artichokes in half and if there is a fuzzy choke part, remove it with a spoon.
4. Remove and of the nice “meat” from the larger leaves by scraping with a spoon.
5. In a large pot, saute the sprig onions and garlic in the olive oil.
6. Add the prepared artichokes, the peeled potato and the vegetable bouillon.
7. Strip the leaves from the thyme sprigs.
8. Add the other 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, the bay leaf and thyme to the vegetable bouillon and bring to a soft boil for 5 minutes.
9. Remove the bay leaf and puree the soup. I use an immersion blender.
10. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, and optionally add soy milk, soy cream or soy yogurt. We did not, as it was already lovely and creamy.
11. The soup was garnished with a few thyme sprigs and three colored sage leaves.

Notes:

adapted from http://localfoods.about.com/od/spring/r/ArtichokeSoup.htm