Recipe for lettuce and herb soup with veal sweetbreads

Soup is part of a cold winter evening. Filling, warm and the perfect way to quickly get a lot of vegetables. Try this surprising lettuce soup.

Ingredients
For 4 people
Preparation time:40 minutes + 1 hour waiting time

• 250 g veal sweetbreads
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp flour
• oil for frying
• 150 g floury potato(s)
• 1 shallot
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 600 ml vegetable stock
• 1/2 head lettuce
• 1 handful of arugula
• 1 handful of watercress
• 2 sprigs of parsley
• 1 handful of chervil
• 50 ml crème frache
• 1 squeeze lemon juice
• Nasturtiums (leaf and flower)
• extra needed:stick blender, 4 tapas sticks

Getting started
Put the sweetbreads in cold water for an hour. Peel and wash the potato(s), cut into cubes. Peel and chop the shallot and garlic. Clean the celery and cut into pieces. Briefly fry all vegetables in the olive oil. Pour in the stock and let it simmer for 20 minutes, covered. In a saucepan, bring 600 ml of water to the boil with ½ teaspoon of salt and the vinegar. Place the sweetbreads in it and poach for 5 minutes. Remove the sweetbreads from the cooking water with a slotted spoon. Let drain and cool. Remove the membrane and cut the thymus into twelve pieces. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper and dip them in the flour. Wash the lettuce leaves and herbs, shake dry and chop coarsely. Stir everything into the stock and cook for 1 minute more. Puree the soup with the immersion blender. Let the soup reduce slightly or dilute with some extra stock to the right thickness. Stir in the crème frache and season with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Heat a dash of oil in a frying pan and fry the sweetbreads for 2-3 minutes until golden brown and crispy. Meanwhile, use a stick blender to make the soup foamy. Pour the soup into heatproof glasses. Garnish with a toothpick of sweetbreads and some nasturtiums.

Enjoy your meal!

Recipe and image:Beeldigbeeld