Spinach Soup with Ginger

 I think I got this recipe from a book of potato-based recipes I saw while in Germany.  (It's definitely written in German).  Regardless, it's a pretty healthy Asian-inspired soup.  And it was pretty delicious.

 Ingredients:
2 Tbsp oil (recipe calls for sunflower, I used canola-- basically not olive)
1 Onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1-inch piece of ginger, finely chopped (Photos, left, illustrate ginger chopping)
250 grams fresh spinach (about 1 package if you buy it in bags)
1 small stalk lemongrass, finely chopped
1 liter of broth (chicken or veggie)
1 small potato, peeled and chopped into small pieces
1 Tbsp Sake or Sherry
Salt and pepper
1 tsp sesame oil, to serve (optional, but recommended)

Chopping ginger can be a bit of a trick, because it has a woody texture.  My local paper recently ran a blurb about how best to chop it.  Start by peeling the ginger.  I like using a potato peeler for this; I find it takes off a thinner layer than if I use a knife.  (First photo)

Thinly slice the peeled ginger along the grain (not across the root), then slice the slices (still along the grain) into mini-French-fry pieces. (Second photo)

Up until now, I like to use a smaller knife.  At this point, I switch to my chef's knife, because I think it's easiest to chop by rocking that curved blade.  Chop across the grain, creating little minced ginger bits.  (Third photo)  I did have to pull the blade of my knife more than I normally would-- that's ginger.

In a large pot, heat the oil and sauté the onion, garlic, and ginger.  After 3 to 5 minutes,  the onion should be slightly transparent.  Add the lemon grass and spinach.   The spinach may over-fill your pot, so add it gradually if you need to.  As it cooks, you'll have more space.  Stir the hot onion mixture throughout the spinach (it'll help it wilt).  Stir until the spinach is completely wilted and clumps together.

Add the broth and chopped potato, and bring the soup to a boil.  Reduce the heat, cover the pot, and allow the soup to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Here's the part that's either fairly fun, or a pain in the butt.  You need to puree the soup.  If you have an immersion blender, you're golden.  Just stick in there, turn it on, don't tilt it and spray the whole kitchen.  If you don't have an immersion blender, you need to cool the soup so you don't crack your blender or food processor when you suddenly dump hot fluid in it.  (Done this.)  How do you quickly cool your soup?  Well, maximizing surface area is a great start.  In the photo, you can see that I've put it into 2 wide, shallow pans.  Also, when you're eating soup, you blow on it; moving the air across the surface allows heat to be more efficiently transferred.  So I set up a fan to blow on my pans of soup.  It doesn't need to be especially cool; as long as you can stick you finger in it without getting scalded, you're probably in good shape.

I used a food processor, but I think a blender would have been a better choice.  First and foremost, my food processor didn't hold liquids-- unless I used short burst, the soup spurted out.  This could be because it's from the 1980s, and not a problem with modern processors.  Or it could be because food processors aren't really made for liquids.  Blenders are: they have lids that seal in their contents.    I think if I made this again, I would certainly use a blender.  I think that would solve my biggest texture problem: the lemon grass.  Lemon grass is sturdy stuff.  It didn't puree well in my processor; I think if I had left it to run for more than 1 second at a time, that wouldn't have been a problem.  As I said before, though, that would have resulted in soup all over my counter.

Return the pureed soup to the pot (if necessary) and re-heat it.  Add the sake or sherry and season to taste with salt and pepper.  I also threw in some Oyster Sauce (used in Thai cooking) because I happened to have it in the fridge and am trying to use it up.  It gave a bit more umami flavor, sort of rounding out the taste.

Serve the soup with a bit of sesame oil on top.  You don't, strictly speaking, need it, but it gives a different flavor.  Sesame oil is potent, so just a couple drops are sufficient.  You could also probably achieve a similar flavor using sesame seeds, but that wouldn't be quite as strong, and it would alter the overall texture.  The recipe also suggested garnishing with strips of spinach leaf-- just thinly slice a couple leaves, and sprinkle them on top.  I didn't do this, as you can see.  The other thing to note-- those bowls are all the soup I made.  The recipe said 4 servings; I was able to get 5 of just the right amount.  I served with toasted baguette on the side.