This is not that hearty a soup, but instead a rather beautiful, and yet very satisfying, soup. Made with spinach and parsley, cooked only briefly, it is exquisite in colour (unless you’ve gone wrong) and has surprises lying beneath the surface - poached egg, bacon pieces and some choice morsels of chicken. As you break into your egg, the already creamy soup is further enriched with flavour and colour from that warm egg yolk. Definitely a soup to dip your bread in to!

Ingredients - serves 4

50g parsley, chopped coarsley
225g young spinach, washed
1 ltre good chicken stock
284ml carton Riverford Organic Dairy double cream
salt, pepper
4 Riverford rashers bacon, cut into small lardons
100g chicken leftovers
4 eggs
1 tbsp white wine vinegar

Method

Fry off the bacon pieces to cooked and set aside with some diced leftover chicken, these will be added at the end of cooking time to warm through. Reheating any cooked meat is all you want to do, cooking it all over again will make it tasteless and dry.

Heat a pan of salted water to boiling. Add the parsley to the pan first for a couple of minutes, followed by the spinach for a further 2-3 minutes until both are barely cooked and have not lost their colour. Drain and process to a purée in a food blender or processor, push through a fine sieve afterwards if you want a truly beautiful soup, or let it be if you don’t object to flecks. Set aside.

Heat the chicken stock to boiling and reduce its volume by a third, add the cream and bring to the boil again - again reduce by a third. By my calculations you’ll have about 750-800ml left. Don’t get too concerned about the measurement, you just want to concentrate the flavours a little, lower to a bare simmer to keep hot and season to taste.

Bring a pan of water to the boil with the white wine vinegar then crack in the eggs, poach for a few minutes and then remove to awaiting warmed bowls with a slotted spoon. As the eggs cook, add the vegetable purée, chicken and bacon to the hot soup and stir in, turn the heat off and cover - the chicken and bacon will become warmed through. Divide between the four bowls, covering the eggs with this lovely, brilliant green soup.