The two stars of this recipe are ground elder (Aegopodium Podagraria) and Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica). Ground elder was spread around Europa by Roman soldiers. They use it as a spice. Nowadays, this plant is considered as an invasive weed. Despite being a nuisance to gardeners, ground elder has medical properties and can help treat gout and arthritis. We described Japanese knotweed here.
 |  |
The inspiration for this soup was a rhubarb-carrot soup recipe. We replaced rhubarb with Japanese knotweed and carrot with ground elder. To add sweetness we used sweet potatoes and to make the soup more filling and nutritional we added red lentils. A bowl of this soup is a perfect spring lunch.
We experimented with garnish. Roasted nuts are a classical choice (for example cashew). We suggested fried spring mushrooms (here St. George, Calocybe gambosa) for a more unusual garnish.
Ground elder-Japanese knotweed soup
Equipment
- 1 pot
- 1 bowl
- 1 cutting board
- oven or airfryer
- 1 Blender
- 1 Knife
- 1 grater
- 1 pan optinal
- 1 Peeler
Ingredients
- 200 grams sweet potetoes
- 10 grams ginger
- 40 grams onion red or yellow
- 130 grams Japanese knotweed
- 15 grams ground elder
- 50 grams red lentils
- 10 grams sorrel optional
- olive oil
- 1 tsp tumeric
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp cynann
- salt
- pepper
- St. George mushrooms optional
- cashwnuts optional
Instructions
- Peel sweet potatoes and cut them into cubes.
- Coat sweet potatoes in olive oil (1 tsp), salt them, and bake in the air fryer for 10 minutes at a temperature of 200℃.
- Cut the onion and grate the ginger.
- Clean the ground elder and separate the leaves from the stems.
- Clean the knotweed and cut it into cubes.
- Fry the onion and ginger with a spoon of olive oil in the cooking pot for about 3 minutes.
- Add water, knotweed, ground elder and red lentils, cook until lentils are soft.
- Transfer the contents of the pot into a blender, add sweet potatoes, sorrel (optional), and spices and blend until smooth.
Prepare garnish
- Roast cashew nuts in a pan.
- Clean St. George mushrooms and cut into clubes.
- Put olive oil into the pan and heat.
- Fry St. George mushrooms until golden-brown.
- Serve the soup in a bowl and add the garnish on top.
