Recipe for Ground Elder Soup (30 min)
Cooking time
30 minutes
(+ foraging time)
Serves
4 servings
Lunch/small dinner
Season
Spring
Summer
Most people consider ground elder a pesky invasive weed. Not us guinea pig parents! Instead of battling ground elder, you can just eat it! Forage ground elder for yourself and your guinea pigs or bunnies. Then turn it into a delicious ground elder soup filled with vitamin A, B and C. Filling as a light dinner or a healthy lunch. It’s super easy.
Ingredients
- 100g ground elder plants (leaves) (3.5 oz)
- 250g white or brown mushrooms (8.8 oz)
- 250g peeled and chopped potatoes (8.8 oz)
- 1 white onion
- 2 cloves of garlic (or a quarter tsp of garlic powder)
- 2 stems of celery
- 1 liter of vegetable broth (made with a cube or homemade) (34 oz)
- 1 tea spoon of sesame seeds per bowl – for topping
- 50ml cooking cream or creme fraiche (3.5 tbsp) – optional, will make the recipe not vegan!
- 4 slices of brown bread – optional
You will also need a blender!
Nutrients
Per 1 portion (including optionals)
| Energy | 263 kcal |
| Protein | 15.1 g |
| Total fat | 7.7 g |
| Saturated fat | 2.6 g |
| Carbohydrate | 33.5 g |
| Sugars | 3 g |
| Dietary fiber | 9.2 g |
| Sodium | 1.6 g |
| Calcium | 55 mg |
| Magnesium | 221 mg |
| Vitamin A | 463 µg |
| Vitamin B1 | 1040 µg |
| Vitamin B2 | 370 µg |
| Vitamin B3 | 2660 µg |
| Vitamin B6 | 490 µg |
| Vitamin B12 | 30 µg |
| Vitamin C | 213 mg |
Sources for nutrient count
- Zevenblad voedingswaarden (Mergenmetmetz.nl)
- Eetmeter (app)
Foraging ground elder
For this recipe, you’ll need a bag of fresh ground elder (not to be confused with elder flower). This plant is also known as Herb Gerrard, Bishops Weed, Masterwort or Goutweed. It’s easily recognizable by its 7 leaves and typical smell which resembles parsley. Young leaves are light green and a bit shiny. Older leaves are a bit darker. You can eat the flowers too, however the plant is best eaten before flowering.
You don’t need gloves to forage ground elder. The plant is popular with snails and moths, so check the bottom of the leaves before you pull it out. Your plant might be occupied!
How to make it
Cut onions and garlic & bake
Chop 1 white onion into however big you like the pieces. Cut 2 cloves of garlic. Roast them in a big pan with some oil or butter until they smell nice.
Chop and add other vegetables and potatoes
Cut the mushrooms (250g) and celery (2 stems) into slices. Peel and cut the potatoes (250g) or buy them pre-cut. Add it all to the pan with the onion and garlic and roast lightly.
Make vegetable broth
While the vegetables are doing their thing, make 1 liter of vegetable broth in another pan. I use a pre-made cube, because it’s so much faster than homemade.
Peel ground elder leaves
While the broth is simmering for a few minutes, pull the ground elder leaves off the stems. It’s okay if small stems come with. It should amount to roughly 100g. Less will just make your soup a bit more watery and more a bit more green, so you can try what you like!
Wash and add leaves to broth
Put it all in a sieve and wash thoroughly. No ants, snails or bugs in my soup, thank you! After washing, add the leaves to the broth. It might not fit all at once, but it will shrink very quickly (like spinach).
Blend the soup
With a blender, cut up all the leaves in the broth. Careful not to burn yourself! This can take a few minutes but keep at it. The leaves and stems are soft and will break up well.
Add vegetable mix
If you like your ground elder soup to have no bits in them, you should do this step before blending, and mix it all together. I like this soup with chonks, so I add the mix from step 2 after blending the soup.
Optional: Add cooking cream and toast bread
If you like your soup to be a bit more creamy, you can add 50ml of cooking cream or creme fraiche. You can also toast some bread in a pan or toaster to eat next to your soup. Up to you!
For topping, you can add a teaspoon of sesame seeds. And there you go! A healthy ground elder soup foraged by your very own hands and chockful of vitamins.
Don’t forget to feed your guinea pigs the leftover stems and ground elder!
