Spinach & Kale Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 pound baby spinach
1/2 pound kale
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 teaspoon salt (if you use canned or carton vegetable stock, you may not want to add any salt)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
32 ounces vegetable or chicken stock
2/3 cup Riesling wine (a Spätlese is good, but certainly not mandatory)
1 12 ounce can evaporated milk
3 tablespoons flour + 3 tablespoons water
3 slices white bread, cubed
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons butter or oil (or mixed)

In a pan, heat the butter and oil until the butter melts. Add the carrot and let cook for a minute or two. The carrot will be the only thing that really needs to cook much to soften it. Tear or cut the kale and spinach into somewhat smaller pieces, making sure to remove the thicker stems from the kale. Keep a small amount of the two greens to top the soup when serving, and add the bulk to the pot, let it wilt. Add the vegetable stock, the salt and the Riesling wine, stir well. At the first sign of bubbling, remove the pan from the heat and gradually stir in the canned milk. Mix the flour and water well. Return the soup to the heat, until it bubbles lightly. Gradually add the flour and water mixture to the soup, stirring constantly. You want the soup to thicken some, but not too much. To make some croutons, add the butter or oil to a skillet, then add the bread cubes, turning to coat and brown them. Add some of your freshly made croutons and a few fresh leaves of spinach and kale to the top of each serving.

WORD HISTORY:
Spinach-The ultimate origin of this word is unknown, although it goes back to Persian, an Indo European language, which had, "aspanakh," which meant "spinach," and it is "possible" that Persian developed the word on its own. This was borrowed into Arabic as "isbanakh." Now we get back to difficult again, as tracing the history of this word is very difficult. How the word got into Europe? It is possible it came from different routes, as the Latin of the Middle Ages had "spinachium," "perhaps" from Saracens (Arabic people). Did this then pass to into Latin-based languages, Provençal ("espinarc") and Old French ("espinoche"), and then into Spanish ("espinaca")?  Did the Moors, a Berber people of the Muslim faith (with heavy influence of Arabic) from northwestern Africa in the Middle Ages, carry the word with them when they invaded Spain (a form there was "asbinakh," which eventually passed into Catalan ("espinac") and Spanish? Still more questions, and how did the word actually get into English? Via French ? Via Dutch ("spinaetse"), which had borrowed it from French. It came into broader use in the 1500s in English.