blue artichoke

Tonight, Gentleman Caller and I plan to watch the UFC fights on pay-per-view. Usually, fight night = pizza night, but tonight I'm making a badass meal to complement the fights. While soup isn't usually known for it's aggressive style or heavy hands, this soup has knockout power. It's a five lily soup, containing onions, leeks, shallots, scallions and garlic, all members of the lily family.

Not only does this soup provide TKO-breath, it's actually quite healthy. Especially the garlic. The smell associated with garlic comes from allium, which is an antibiotic, an intestinal antispasmodic, a decongestant and an expectorant. Garlic lowers the levels of blood cholesterol and triglycerides, lowers blood pressure and reduces blood clotting (as do onions, leeks and shallots). It stimulates the immune system and is an antioxidant, as well as a germicide, fungicide and intestinal worm killer. What a heavyweight powerhouse! Onions, leeks and shallots contain antibacterial agents. The stuff in onions that make you cry also breaks up mucus congestion. And all members of the lily family generally promote heart health and prevent various cancers.

All of these lilies are available throughout the winter, so take advantage of this soup's medicinal qualities to help you weather winter colds and sniffles.

Five Lily Soup

The ingredient amounts are mere suggestions. This is what I happened to use for tonight's soup, but feel free to increase or decrease amounts according to what's in your fridge and how much crying you can stand, chopping all those oniony ingredients!

1/4 c. butter
2-3 leeks, whites and light green parts, diced and rinsed properly
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, whole
1 shallot, diced
2 green onions, sliced (I used the white and light green parts in the soup, then used the darker green ends for garnish)

Sweat together. This means cook over low heat until soft, but not browned.

+ 1/4 c. flour. Stir and let flour cook a little bit to make a roux.

+ 1 can chicken broth
1/2 c. heavy cream
Bring to simmer.

For a more refined soup, strain through china cap or strainer and whizz with an immersion blender. I prefer a more peasant-style chunky soup, so I just correct the consistency by adding more chicken stock or water if the soup is too thick and season with salt until it's just so good that I can't stand it. (Plus, I don't have to clean a strainer or blender. Aces!)
Done.

It is possible to OD on garlic, as GC found out after a visit to a garlic-themed restaurant in San Francisco when he suffered some gastric distress. We both had garlic-scented sweat for days after that glorious meal. That garlic smell is difficult to remove. Some say rubbing your hands on stainless steel or rubbing them with cut lemon removes the odor. I'm not convinced. I'd say just feed garlic to your friends and family so, in the words of UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, everyone's "bref stank."