Cold and flu and perpetual strep throat season is upon us, and of course I was blessed with the first round of illness.  After a day of ordering canned soup online (what a world we live in…) I felt well enough to actually stand over the stove without wanting to rest my head on a steaming pot of Progresso.  Plus, all the salt was making me feel worse than if I had just stuck to tea…

So I mustered up my energy to scavenge through my pantry and fridge, and developed a recipe for healthy, tasty soup that’s easy enough to make when you’re dying of the plague.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil
garlic powder and onion powder
2 small potatoes, cubed (peeling optional)
4 quarts of boiling water mixed with 2 tablespoons bouillion
1/2 a bunch of kale, chopped (I used purple kale, just for funsies)
1 zucchini, diced
2 cups of baby spinach, washed
salt and paper to taste

Directions:

Heat a soup pan with oil.  Add cubed potatoes and stir in with garlic and onion powder (because you’re sick, you can’t even tasted the aromatics anyway, they may as well be from a jar…)  After about five minutes when the potatoes start to soften, stir in the kale. As the Kale wilts, stir in the zucchini and and boiling water. Add salt and pepper. Cover and cook on low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. The veggies will have lost a bit of their green color, but don’t worry- the spinach will bring it back!

Let cool for about an hour.  Stir in raw spinach leaves and add soup to a food processor or use an immersion blender to throughly blend all ingredients. Re-heat and you’re ready to eat!

Delicious on its own or topped with crumbly cheese or alongside a crusty bread/saltines.

You’ll be feeling better before you know it!