Spring Broth

Leafy greens are a spring staple in Romania. Maybe the most popular is garden patience, which is a sort of poor mans lunch, according to popular tradition. It is mostly eaten as an ingredient in soups. It is rich in vitamins and minerals, and is a genuine detox cure for spring. Garden patience is widely available in spring, and grows as a weed would.

Ștefan Baciu, 17.05.2015, 13:31

Leafy greens are a spring staple in Romania. Maybe the most popular is garden patience, which is a sort of poor mans lunch, according to popular tradition. It is mostly eaten as an ingredient in soups. It is rich in vitamins and minerals, and is a genuine detox cure for spring. Garden patience is widely available in spring, and grows as a weed would.

Garden patience soup could not be easier to make, and should not take more than half an hour. Take three or four handfuls of the leaf, wash thoroughly, then remove the thicker stems. Also take a couple of carrots, a small celery root (or roughly chopped celery stems), one onion, two or three potatoes and a handful of rice. Boil the carrots, finely diced, along with the similarly chopped onion and celery, and the cubed potatoes. Boil for about 20 minutes, then add the souring agent of your choice. It Romania it is the fermented wheat bran called ‘bors, not to be confused with ‘borscht. Add salt to taste, and consume hot or cold with spring onion. You can also add to this the other typically Romanian leafy green, mountain spinach, which lends a reddish tint to the broth.

If you want more consistency, you can trickle beaten egg into the soup. Alternatively, or in addition, you can chop some smoked rib or bacon to give it more flavor.