Real food: Naughty nutmeg lifts spinach soup to sublime levels
Monday May 11 2009
Where would we be without herbs and spices? These flavoursome additions are a treasure trove for creative licence, sparking the culinary imagination and lifting an average dish to the sublime.
Try cooking some popular dishes from a variety of different ethnic cuisines and you'll quickly see how you can mix and match to make your own recipes from simple ingredients such as potatoes, cabbage and chicken.
This week, I'm using nutmeg with nutrient-packed spinach to give this healthy soup a boost, and I just adore the way that the leafy flavours of the vegetable combine with rich nutmeg for a spicy but subtle kick.
Like cinnamon or cardamom, this spice is equally at home with sweeter foods like cakes and biscuits, but using it in savoury cuisine is where I like it most.
My husband's favourite gadget in the kitchen is a miniature grater kept solely for grating whole nutmeg, so when I am making this soup, I am always ably assisted. In fact, he dictated this recipe to me, as it was a staple from his childhood.
It's worth buying the nutmeg whole as it really fills the senses when freshly grated. A pinch here and there adds up in more ways than one.
Nutmeg has been associated with a wide range of medical benefits for centuries. It was first introduced into Europe for medical purposes by the Arabs, but on the other side of the globe, it also gained historic precedence in Chinese medicine for treating illness and promoting health.
In general terms, this is a great spice for the entire digestive system, as it's associated with soothing the stomach, and treating more serious complaints like diarrhoea.
Unlike salt, it can also lower blood pressure and is alleged to have an ability to detoxify the liver and even help dissolve kidney stones.
As if that wasn't enough, nutmeg can also help with respiratory problems, and is so widely regarded as a treatment for coughs and colds that it's often included in over-the-counter cough syrups.
Like many potent substances, nutmeg also has something of a dark side, and has been revered for its hallucinogenic qualities by everyone from eastern priests to ancient Romans. For this reason, it shouldn't be taken in high quantities.
In smaller doses, however, nutmeg is considered a mental stimulant, so it may even spark your culinary imagination to even more intriguing uses for this wonderful spice.
If you're trying out this soup to begin with, it's worth buying the large leaf, stalky spinach that is widely available from most farmers' markets. Baby spinach leaves are less suited to being cooked and tend to be more expensive.
Spinach and Nutmeg Soup
Serves four
25g butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 litre chicken stock (or vegetable), hot
500g stalky spinach, washed, stalks left intact
Nutmeg, freshly grated
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Cream, to serve
Method
- Melt the butter in a large saucepan and sweat the onions for 10 minutes over a medium heat. Add in the crushed garlic towards the end.
- Increase the heat and pour 100ml of hot stock into the saucepan before packing in the spinach.
- Cover with a lid, stirring occasionally. When the spinach has wilted, add in the remaining stock. Bring to the boil and simmer over a low heat for 10 minutes.
- Blend, season and add freshly grated nutmeg to taste.
- Ladle into soup bowls and serve immediately with a generous swirl of cream.
- Vanessa Greenwood
