This creamy cilantro soup recipe makes the best of one of the season’s most flavorful herbs. Â Adapted from the recipe featured on the PBS show Adventures with Ruth–a travel and cooking show hosted by the editor of the now defunct Gourmet Magazine, Ruth Reichl–our recipe is a slight twist on the traditional soup of Tepoztlan, Mexico. Â With smoky almonds and savory leeks accentuating the fresh, clean taste of cilantro, it’s is sure to become a summer favorite.
What You Will Need:
- 1 1/2 lbs. of cilantro (about 5 bunches)
- 4 cups good quality chicken broth
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 8 oz. almonds (blanched or skin-on)
- 1 cup onion, chopped
- 3 leeks, white parts only, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 tsps. all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sherry
- 3 cups whole milk
- 2 tsps. salt
Steps:
Cilantro is delicious, but it can also be gritty. Â Make sure you wash your cilantro thoroughly before blanching it by soaking it in a bowl of cool water for five minutes and then rinsing it under running water.
Once you have washed your cilantro, blanche it by submerging it in a pot of boiling water for about two minutes, draining it, and then moving it immediately into a bowl of ice water. This sets the color so that your cilantro soup will maintain a lovely, spring green.
Once you have blanched the cilantro, start prepping your veggies. Â Chop an onion. Â While the original recipe called for a white onion, we used a red one, and though the use of a red onion does change the final color of the soup slightly, we like how its sweeter flavor plays off the peppery bite of the cilantro.
Clean and chop your leeks. Â Remember, leeks can have lots of dirt and grit caught inside their long leaves, so be sure to rinse the stalks thoroughly before chopping.
After you have prepped the veggies, heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat in a large pot or dutch oven. Â Once the oil is hot, add the almonds and cook until their edges just begin to blacken–about 5 minutes.
Remove the almonds from the pot, and set them aside. Â Add the butter, onion, leeks, and garlic. Â Cook until the onion and the leeks have begun to soften and the garlic has become fragrant.
Now it’s time to make a roux. Â Sprinkle 1 1/2 teaspoons of all-purpose flour over the vegetables and stir. Â Cooked together, the butter and the flour will help to thicken the soup.
Once the flour has melted into the butter, add the sherry, the chicken stock, and the milk to the pot.
Next, add the almonds and the blanched cilantro back to the pot and stir. Â It’s all coming together!
Finally, it is time to blend the soup. Â If you have a good stick blender, use it. Â If not, transfer the soup in batches to a blender or a food processor and whiz until smooth. For an extra smooth and creamy soup, you can take the extra step of pouring the blended soup through a mesh sieve, but we skipped this process in order to speed preparation time. Â And anyway, we like a more rustic finished product!
Add two teaspoons of salt or more to taste.  Serve the soup warm or cold, garnished with almonds and  fresh cilantro.
