Artichoke and Preserved Lemon Soup

I love artichokes. A lot. But I do not make them often because Marc despises them. We’re talking mortal enemies. He can sense from two days out if I steamed an artichoke while he was away for the weekend, so clearly, I only serve this Artichoke and Preserved Lemon Soup when he’s not around. The funny part is that of the two of us, artichokes should be my mortal enemy. The great artichoke debacle of 2007 occurred due to the perfect storm of Marc at a conference in Chicago, an overabundance of fresh baby artichokes and too many late night episodes on the food network. Feeling inspired by a delicious looking plate of fried artichoke hearts and the fact that I had all the ingredients on hand, I decided that late night frying was the most natural path to a delicious midnight snack. I was a very inexperienced fryer at the time but recently had great success with fried chicken. I had my big bottle of frying oil and filled my fancy schmancy stock pot with oil, turned it on and carried the artichokes out to the living room where I could clean them from the comfort of my couch while watching the conclusion of the artichoke recipe. Unfortunately, I promptly fell asleep and things went downhill from there. Apparently, there are good reasons not to leave a pot of oil on the stove unattended. I woke up, looked around blearily and slowly the project at hand came back to me. Upon seeing the bowl of cleaned artichokes on my coffee table I sprinted to the kitchen to check on the pot of oil. I naively opened the kitchen door without a gas mask. A wall of black smoke crashed into me and started burning my eyes and lungs. I slammed the door shut, slid down the wall in defeat and began to formulate a cleanup plan. Step one involved reaching into the kitchen and turning off the gas burner. Repeat door slam retreat. Step two was ski goggle and fan retrieval. I army crawled into the kitchen while holding my breath and opened the back door and the kitchen window and then escaped out the back door. On my fourth trip into the kitchen, I was able to set up the fans to blow the air out of the kitchen. Once the air was vaguely safe to breathe it was time to begin phase two. Burnt boiling oil disposal with a preference for salvaging my copper-core stockpot. Granted, it was really late.  My brain scorched by the black smoke, I decided I needed to cool the oil down enough to get the pot out of the house and into the back yard. And the best way to do this? Lobbing vegetables into the pot from a distance. I know. That’s a REALLY, REALLY bad plan. But it’s what I went with. It turns out that large russet potatoes do cool burning oil quickly. But they also splash a giant mess of impossible to clean nastiness everywhere. I think I went to bed at 5am. Every fabric surface in my home had to be washed. The kitchen was stripped, washed, bleached. Traumatic. Not in the hyperbolic use of the word. I promise not to give you that recipe. But, in order to fully enjoy the Meyer lemons I made you preserve and so that you can fulfill some of your artichoke needs, here’s a lovely soup that’s perfect for winter- it calls for root vegetables, frozen artichokes and of course, Dirty Laundry Kitchen preserved lemons. Artichoke and Preserved Lemon Soup is perfect for ladies luncheons, and cold winter nights.

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Artichoke and Preserved Lemon Soup

Artichoke and Preserved Lemon Soup is a great excuse to make your own preserved lemons as well as a delicious and healthy gluten free soup.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time40 minutes mins

Total Time55 minutes mins

Servings: 12

Author: Barrett Bridenhagen

Ingredients

• 2 cups diced onion
• 1 fennel bulb diced
• 1 ½ pounds 3 russet potatoes, peeled and rough chopped
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 8 cups chicken or vegetable stock to cover
• 1 cup white wine
• 24 oz frozen artichoke hearts I find them at Trader Joe’s
• 1 preserved lemon seeds removed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• salt to taste
• artichoke gremolata optional

Instructions

• Sauté the onions and fennel in olive oil in an 8 quart stock pot. When softened add 1 teaspoon salt and the garlic. Add the white wine and cook down to the softened vegetables. Add the potatoes.
• Cover with the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer 20 minutes. Potatoes should be softening.
• Add the frozen artichoke hearts and the preserved lemon. Cook on medium low for another 15 minutes.
• Purée the soup until smooth and velvety. I use an immersion blender right on the stove in the pot I cooked it in- this way there's fewer dishes. But a blender or food processor work just as well- just process in batches.
• Return to the pot for a final seasoning and cook for a few more minutes.
• You can serve it as is, but due to the color, it doesn't look as good as it tastes. To serve it for guests I slice artichoke bottoms thinly and layer on top with parsley and serve it with brioche rolls - perfection. Or I make artichoke gremolata.

Notes

This recipe can be cut in half, or in third, or quartered very easily. I just always make lots of soup at a time and freeze it in four cup containers- how very pantry tips of me.

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Artichoke Gremolata

Artichoke and Preserved Lemon Soup is a great excuse to make your own preserved lemons as well as a delicious and healthy gluten free soup.

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Total Time5 minutes mins

Servings: 4

Author: Barrett Bridenhagen

Ingredients

• 1 lemon; peeled and segmented
• 1 large artichoke bottom
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• salt to taste

Instructions

• Dice the artichoke into 1 centimeter squares. Dice the lemon. Mix the lemon, artichoke, parsley, salt, and oil in a small bowl. Spoon on top of the soup to serve.