chilled spinach, avocado and pea soup with crab salsa

If like me, you managed to OD on  mini-eggs and treacle tart over the weekend, you might be thinking about injecting something a little bit healthier into your poor, saccharine-addled body. This chilled green soup of mind-boggling goodness is just what the overworked NHS GP ordered. Verdant with veg and gorgeous supped with tomato juice ice cubes, a touch of greek yoghurt and a piquant crab salsa (don’t worry if you can’t get fresh crab, the supermarket tinned lump-meat stuff is just as good for these purposes) it’s something you can put together super-quickly after the shock of being back at the electronic coalface. Perfect for when you’re feeling a bit kitchen shy and just want to bask it up in those final rays of the day…

ingredients

for the soup

1 x 230g bag spinach leaves, washed and blitzed right down in a blender with ½ pint cold vegetable stock (I used 1 tsp Marigold powder)

2-3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

2-3 spring onions, roughly chopped

1 avocado, roughly chopped

1 small clove garlic, crushed

The juice of a lime

A couple of pickled chillies

A dash of sherry/balasamic/rice/not Sarsons vinegar

1 hefty pinch of salt and a few twists of pepper

1 handful of fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped

2-3 tbsp peas (I used defrosted frozen petit pois)

For the salsa:

One tin of whole lump crab meat (or fresh if you can get it)

A red pepper, diced

½ red onion finely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 red chilli, finely chopped

Juice and zest of half a lime

A glug of good olive/avocado oil

Chopped parsley/coriander

Salt and pepper

to serve

a spoonful of greek yoghurt

frozen cubes of tomato juice, or if you’re feeling a bit flash, whole mint leaves frozen in tomato juice cubes.

Method

• Place all the soup ingredients in a blender, whizz and adjust the seasoning to taste (it develops over time, so if enjoying this straight away, I’d add a smidge more garlic, salt and/or chilli).
• Chill in the fridge with ice cubes while you get on with the salsa.
• Combine the salsa ingredients.
• Serve with the chilled soup.
• If you’re mega-organised you can make tomato ice cubes ahead of putting this together, otherwise a cold swirl of yoghurt it is. Some toasted almonds would be nice too.

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