Most people use the aromatic leaves of the bay tree (Laurus nobilis) and kaffir lime tree (Citrus hystrix) to flavour foods. Jackie French takes the idea of ‘eating your greens’ much further. She flavours her recipes with lemon leaves (Citrus limon), Tahitian lime leaves (Citrus latifolia), celery tops (Apium graveolens var. dulce), onion leaves (Allium cepa), leek tops (Allium porrum), green garlic tops (Allium sativum), garlic chive leaves (Allium tuberosum) and lemon verbena leaves (Aloysia triphylla). In our segment Jackie prepared an interesting soup using parts of vegies that most of us throw out with the compost!
Leaf and egg soup
Ingredients
2 large cartons chicken stock 1 cup celery leaves 1 cup lemon, lime or lemon verbena leaves 1/2 cup leek tops 1 handful garlic chives, or garlic tops, or 2 whole cloves garlic, peeled 1 handful onion tops 2 bay leaves 2 eggs
Method
Pour the chicken stock into a saucepan. Wash the leaves and add them whole to the stock. (Tip: don’t chop the leaves first, or they’ll be difficult to remove from the soup.)Simmer for 5-20 minutes (the longer you simmer it, the more flavour there’ll be). Scoop out the leaves.Beat the eggs then pour them in slowly so they form little threads.Bring the soup to the boil again and serve.
(Warning: don’t use any leaves that have been sprayed with chemicals, or any leaves you can’t identify. Some plants are poisonous!)