Nine-herb soup or Maundy Thursday soup

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 3 m.-sized potatoes
• 2 small carrots
• ⅛ head of celery
• 1 large onion(s)
• 2 handfuls of herbs
• 2 handfuls of flowers
• 1 shot of rapeseed oil
• 1 tbsp spelt flour
• e.g. vegetable stock powder or instant stock paste
• 1 ½ liters of water
• n. B. Sea salt, coarse
• n. B. Nutmeg
• 1 garlic clove(s), optional
• 1 slice(s) rye bread
• e.g. butter

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Total time approx. 2 hours 30 minutes

a vitalizing, restorative soup before Easter, during Lent

Peel and chop the potatoes, trim and chop one carrot and celery. Put everything in a pot, fill with water, and place the pot on the fire. Add the granulated stock or instant stock paste, or just salt. Peel the onion and chop the second carrot. Sauté both in a pan with rapeseed oil. Then add a little flour and fry until light brown. Then transfer the contents of the pan to the soup pot. Cook until soft, then puree the soup with a hand blender. Season with nutmeg. In the meantime, wash the wild herbs (young spring herbs such as wild garlic, ground elder, nettle, yarrow, dandelion leaves) and flowers (fresh wild herb flowers such as daisies, pansies, dandelion flowers, lungwort, etc.) and briefly chop the wild herbs roughly. Mix into the pureed soup and garnish with a few wild herbs and the blossoms. Remove the crust from a slice of rye bread and cut it into cubes. Toast the bread pieces in a pan with hot butter. Add the croutons to the soup. Add garlic and cream or milk, if desired. Note: Nine-herb soup is traditionally eaten on Maundy Thursday, before Easter. However, it can also be cooked several times afterwards, as long as the spring herbs are still growing. You can vary the way it is used by cooking it plain with cream, or with potatoes as a thickener, or even with a flour and onion roux. I used both. This soup boosts the immune system because of the beneficial effects of the wild herbs. They should not be cooked, but rather added to the finished soup so that they retain their potency.