Grass Soup...

When in Rome... do as the Romans - or Seattleites - to some degree. So my friend Brandi and I have decided to split an organic box of produce from New Roots Organics on a bi-weekly basis. We're assured a variety of in-season fruits and veggies, a majority of them coming from the State of Washington. Our first veggie box came yesterday and I was so excited! I was going to have a fridge full of food and foods that I might not pick out on my own. There were cherries, apricots, nectarine, cauliflower, squashes, beets (neither of us wanted them), lettuce, carrots, potatoes, an onion (that we had to split) and cilantro. It was funny to see which foods we were more excited about and those we were more than easily willing to pass on. Brandi handed me the huge bunch of cilantro because her husband didn't eat it and it would just go bad. I love cilantro but really didn't know what to do with that much of it. She gave me a recipe and I hurried home to go skate 10 miles (yes, that is a lot) with one of my new skater friends.

We got back close to 10 p.m. and I hoped over to my favorite Ballard Market to get the few things I needed for my recipe. It was a "raw" recipe as Brandi described it. There are so many different types of food eaters I'm learning about - far beyond vegans and vegetarians, but also those into raw. (Some one at lunch asked me if I was into "raw" because I always eat salads...) Anyway, I got the stuff and started to make the Cold Cilantro Soup. I juiced (as in squeezed) the lemon and the orange. I chopped up the carrots and tomato so that my Braun Hand Blender could do it's job on such tough foods. Cut up the garlic, poured in the coconut milk. I then went to add the cilantro which I had chopped up a little. Bzzzzzz. One quick buzz and I looked in the bowl and started laughing out loud. It looked like grass soup. You know, when you're a kid and you take an empty pie tin and fill it with rain water, grass clippings, dandelion flowers and stir it up. I could just hear my dad saying "Whose grass soup is this?" that would inevitability be found in the garage. Mud pies too - with sand sprinkles.

I finished blending it and it looked less like grass soup than it did like a curry sauce. It's very tasty. I thought I'd share the recipe with you. Try it.

Grass Soup (aka Light Cilantro Soup)
1 bunch of cliantro
1 lemon or lime juiced
1 orange - juiced
1 carrot
1 tomato
1/4 cup Olive or Flax Oil (I used to Table spoons - too much oil)
Nama Shoyu - unpasteurized Soy Sauce - I just used regular
3-4 garlic cloves
1/4-1/2 jalapeno
1 t Tumeric
1 t Curry power
Young Coconut Water or Distilled Water (I used coconut milk very watered down)

Place all of the above ingredients into a blender, adding enough young coconut water to blend with. Add addition water to make it a lighter soup. This is a "hot" soup in that garlic, jalapeno and spices are use. It's very tasty.

Enjoy Grass Soup!