Potato and spinach soup

At a certain point in summer, last year's potatoes are getting duller and duller while the baby delicate new potatoes are an occasional luxury. This soup is a good way to use older potatoes that are softening in storage. As for the greens, I used to view spinach as someone with many attractive qualities but one or two quirks that annoyed me so much (like that film on my teeth) that I was hesistant to make friends. We bonded mainly through this soup. You can also use other greens such as lettuce leaves, parsley, cilantro, or green onion tops - this is a good clean out the fridge soup.

Dice half a large onion (or 1 med) and a couple of stalks of celery and saute gently in a saucepan with some salt over medium heat for several minutes until soft. Add two cups of chicken stock and one large diced potato and boil til potato is cooked. Blend soup in two batches just til pureed - overblending will make the potatoes gummy. (My own preference is to leave it slightly chunky.) Also blend one cup of milk with three handfuls of spinach. Stir spinach and milk mixture into soup, taste for salt, and heat through with care; if you cook the soup too much after adding the spinach the attractive green colour will dull.

You can use skim or whole milk, canned evaporated milk, and soy though you could also leave it out if you don't have any of these on hand and just blend the leaves at the same time as the rest of the soup. Garnish with grated or crumbled cheese, if available.

See Sweetnicks' ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday roundup for more great ways to eat fruit and vegetables.