Name: Hot and Gingery Collard-Plantain Soup
Yield: Serves 4 as a main course
Ingredients: 1½ pounds collards, well washed; 1½ pounds yellow-ripe plantain; 2½ quarts light vegetable or chicken broth; 2 teaspoons kosher salt; ½ teaspoon turmeric; ¼ cup peeled, chopped ginger; 4 large garlic cloves, sliced; 2 to 4 Jalapeño chillis, seeded and chopped; 2 tablespoons corn oil or mild olive oil; Optional: dried coarse-grated or sliced coconut; 2 tablespoons brown sugar; Wafer-thin half-rounds of orange (with peel)

Preparation info

Serves
4
as a main course

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini

By Elizabeth Schneider

Published 2001

About

To warm a wintry evening, try this tropical meal-in-a-bowl instead of cabbage and potato soup. Thick collard leaves turn soft and succulent and pinky plantains, firm as small waxy potatoes, lend a fruity flavor as they thicken and sweeten the broth. A bonus: The soup is unusually quick-cooking for one of this hearty type and needs no time for mellowing.