Wild Garlic Soup

Wild garlic season lasts only 2-3 months. It sprouts in February and is gone by May or June. Wild garlic is usually found in damp areas of woodland and riverbanks or you can grow it in your own garden. There is no perfect way to preserve it for later (dried, fermented or frozen wild garlic loses the aroma) so it is best to use as much as you can when it grows. You can use the leaves in salads, make pesto, creamy garlic sauce or garlic salt but my favourite way to use it is raw cold soup. Especially when the spring is sunny and warm like this year my body is craving this nutritious, aromatic, refreshing, super green cold soup. Flowers and seeds of wild garlic are perfect as a food garnish. Be fast, the season it short!

Prep time: 15 minutes

Chilling time: 1 hour (you can skip this if you prefer to eat your soup lukewarm)

Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes

2 Portions

Ingredients

For the soup:

100g ripe avocado
50g wild garlic
150g cucumber
180g courgette
300g celery sticks
200g plain soya yogurt
50g lime juice
150g water
salt and pepper to taste

Toppings:

50g grated radish
50g grated cucumber
1 chopped spring onion
2 tbsp hemp hearts
a handful of wild garlic flowers for garnish

Method

You will need a grater and high-speed blender

Blend all the ingredients for a soup in a high-speed blender. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
Grate the cucumber and radish using a coarse grater. Chop the spring onion. Mix grated vegetables with a soup
Divide the soup between two plates. Garnish with chopped spring onion, wild garlic flowers and hemp hearts.

Nutrition

This green soup is a very rich source of chlorphyll, fibre, potassium, vitamins A and K, B1, B2, B£, B5, B6 and folate.
It also contains copper, calcium, iron, magnesium and manganese.
Addition of hemp seeds provide recomended daily intake of omega-3 fatty acids.