No fresh ingredients challenge - Tins and frozen veg can make a meal

So over the holidays, I ran into a strange Boxing Day dilemma. After a Christmas of ham and pastry, I was hankering for some homemade veggie soup. Specifically, I was looking to make a potato and leek soup, Only problem was, it being Boxing Day, every single fresh fruit and veg shop in Newtown was closed. Instead of succumbing to the easy Take Away option - Addison's on Erskineville Rd was still open - we hit the local "supermarket", aka glorified convenience store, to check our options.

Here's what we came back with:

1 tin whole champignon mushrooms
1 tin Mini taters with a hint of mint
1 pack frozen spinach
1 small carton of pure cream
1 stick salted butter
Approx. 300 ml chicken stock

And from this, with a bit of spices and herbs, we proceeded to make a very green but surprisingly tasty, cream of potato and spinach soup! :D How's that for a Boxing Day Feast?

Gourmet Inspired Tip: Nutmeg! Seriously - discovery of 2009. The flavour of the spinach was a bit to powerful and it wasn't quite complementing the cream the way I was hoping. Thanks Anthony Bourdain's potato and leek recipe, I added a bit of nutmeg to really tie everything together.

Ingredients:

To the above list I added:

1 tbs chilli flakes
1 tbs nutmeg


Method:

Heat the chicken stock until boiling. Add potatoes and spinach and simmer on low for approximately 20 minutes. Add the butter and mushrooms and simmer for another 25-30 minutes. Remove from heat.

Scoop out the mushrooms from soup, they get lost if they get blended up with everything else. Blend the remaining soup until smooth. Return to pot, return the mushrooms and return to heat.

Add approximately 100 ml of cream and combine until smooth. Season with chilli flakes and nutmeg. Salt and pepper to taste.