Spring Vegetable Soup – Mrs. Beeton Reimagined

Tucked away under the high tunnels and sunny gardens of Colorado, tender baby greens and turnips are springing forth for our meals and what better way to use them than in Food for the Ages’ delicious Spring Vegetable Soup.

My first foray into adding lettuce to soup was in 1979 at Finlaystone, in Scotland, where we still used the cookbook, Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management. When you consider Finlaystone house was first built in the 14th Century, using a mid-19th Century cookbook shows how thrifty these Scots were.

There was an Italian recipe for Lettuce Soup in Mrs. Beeton’s that Lady Marian directed me, Cooky for the week, to prepare using sorrel that was freshly picked from the Walled In Garden.

I think Mrs. Beeton interpreted her Italian soup recipe for mid-19th Century Anglicized tastes of her readers as it contained only the most bland ingredients: lettuce, stock, rice and a bit of parmesan cheese. The sorrel definitely added a zing when I made it but I remember the resulting soup was not an inspiration. But that was then.

Fast forward to now and FFA’s Early Season Vegetable Soup with lettuce is Frenchified and delicious, with plenty of early season greens (tender baby chard, spinach and kale) along with tarragon, carrots, turnips, celery and even mashed potatoes with butter. It is Mrs. Beeton’s Lettuce Soup reimagined and inspired for today’s tastes and nutritional needs. Here’s the recipe…

Spring Vegetable Soup

Serves 6

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 leeks, finely chopped (Remove most of the green and freeze for use later in a stock or sauce.)
• 1 medium-sized turnip, peeled and finely chopped, or you can use multiple tiny turnips that are quartered
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 7 cups chicken broth or bone broth or water, if you’d prefer a vegetarian soup
• Coarse salt to taste
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 3 medium-sized potatoes, cooked and mashed with 4 tablespoons butter and 1/2 cup whipping cream(a great way to use up the mashers from the night before!)
• 1 pound of chiffonade-cut greens or a head of lettuce (I used baby kale, chard and spinach)
• 1 tablespoon dried or 3 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley

1. Melt the butter in a 5 quart stock pot. Add onion and sauté until soft. Add leeks, carrots, turnip, celery and garlic and stir together. Cover and let the vegetables sweat for 5 minutes on medium low heat.
2. Add broth and season with salt, pepper, sugar and tarragon. Simmer over low heat only partially covered for 40 minutes.
3. While the soup is simmering, peel and boil the potatoes in salted water for 35 minutes, or until tender.
4. Pour off the water from the cooked potatoes and add in cream and butter and mash until pureed.
5. Add the potato puree and bring to a low simmer.
6. Add lettuce to the soup and stir in the parsley.