What to eat Wednesdays - Spinach and feta soup

This creamy spinach and feta soup is truly decadent. I got inspired to make it after eating a version at Taihape's Brown Sugar Cafe's on my trip to Te Puke a couple of weeks back.

I found a recipe at food.com, and slightly modified it by adding in celery, since I had some in the fridge that needed using. Paul thought this soup was good, and worth sharing on Craving Fresh. The taste overcame his prejudice against all foods green, so that's saying something.

Ingredients

• 50g butter
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 2 big cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bunch spinach, washed and stalks removed
• 1 litre chicken stock
• pinch dried oregano
• pinch dried nutmeg
• 1/2c plain all-purpose flour
• 100g feta
• 100mls cream or plain unsweetened yoghurt
• pepper to taste

Method
1. Roughly chop the spinach, dice the celery and mince the garlic.

2. Warm the chicken stock.

3. Melt the butter in a large saucepan on a medium heat and sauté the celery and garlic in it for 2 minutes.

4. Stir in the spinach, cover and sauté for a further 5 minutes.

5. Add the flour and stir well for one minute, until it has thoroughly mixed with the excess butter.

6. Add the chicken stock, half a cup at a time, stirring well until it has thickened before adding the next half cup.

7. Add the oregano and nutmeg, cover and simmer on a low heat for 45 minutes, stirring at regular intervals to prevent sticking. Add water if it's thickening too much.

8. Add the feta cheese and simmer until it has melted.

9. Stir in cream or yoghurt.

10. Whiz with a hand blender or food processor until smooth.

12. Add pepper to taste. (Salt is not necessary because of the saltiness of the feta.)
13. Serve with a swirl of cream and buttered crusty white bread or focaccia on the side.

Serves 5.