Heidi Swanson's Edamame Soup

I love Heidi Swanson. When I was diagnosed with diabetes, a good friend recommended that I pick up a copy of Heidi Swanson's cookbook, Super Natural Cooking. During the first few months after my diagnosis, this book was a godsend. Many of her recipes are heavy on the nuts and veggies, and I like both of those things. Her recipes are always very health-conscious, and her book provides great insight into the benefits and importance of superfoods and other highly nutritious ingredients. This book was the first to show me that a diabetic's diet is really just a healthy diet.

A couple of weeks ago, that same friend invited a couple friends over for a small dinner. I prepared a couple of other things (posts on those coming soon), but I really wanted to make a soup because I hadn't made one in a while. As I was browsing through various websites and cookbooks, I came across Heidi Swanson's Edamame Soup recipe on her website/blog. I love edamame, I love soup, and I wanted to make something vegetarian-friendly for the dinner, so this was perfect.

What I love about this recipe is that there's a lot of leeway to make this recipe your own. The base recipe is simple and typical.

You start off with sautéing one potato and one onion in some olive oil.

Then you add in some vegetable stock and a ton of shelled edamame beans. Then you grab your handy dandy immersion blender, purée the heck out of the soup, and strain.

Behold, my straining contraption. I only strained the soup once, but I probably could have gotten a much silkier texture if I had the extra time to strain the soup one more time.

After straining the soup, you can add in a good amount of crème fraîche, salt, and pepper and let your imagination run wild. My imagination that night, was not running all that wild. I was running around wildly, though, because I was already running late to the dinner. I did get a chance to blend in some garlic, add some cayenne pepper, and throw in some onion powder to give the soup some straightforward depth. The soup itself was fulfilling, creamy, and entirely comforting. The recipe is so easy and cheap that I wouldn't hesitate to whip up this soup again in the near future.

If I had more time, I would probably take up Heidi Swanson's suggestion to top the soup with some crushed, toasted peanuts and fried shallots, or add in some thyme and hazelnuts with squeezes of orange and lemon, or just throw on some bacon. Really, though, the possibilities are limitless.