A vibrant green soup to end summer on a high note
Plus, I want to hear about your renovation regrets and surprises.
A vibrant green soup to end summer on a high note
Plus, I want to hear about your renovation regrets and surprises.
Amanda Hesser
Sep 04, 2026
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Summer has a way of shaking everything loose. My desk is in disarray. Some of our beach towels hang on the clothes line and some lie in wads on the laundry room floor. There are countless ⅞-eaten potato chip/tortilla/flaxseed crisp bags in the pantry. Not sure about you, but by this time in the season, I’m ready to tighten the screws.
On Monday,
I kicked off a weekly Chat
, and your thoughts about house layout tips were detailed and insightful! I especially liked how this comment from April Rose cut to the chase: “What will be the two rooms I go back and forth to frequently? Are they connected? Ex. Laundry & Bedroom, Kitchen & Dining Room.”
And now I’m curious:
Because this is a wistful time of year,
Would you have done anything differently with a major home decision (move, renovation, purchase)? Any misses, regrets, and/or happy surprises?
Commenting is open to all! And this week’s post is free, so please go ahead and share it widely! (Who doesn’t need this vibrant spinach and kale soup in their fall meal rotation?)
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I’ll be spending this weekend packing up from Wainscott and heading back to Brooklyn to get our son, Walker, ready to leave for a semester in London. I’ll also be finishing up a long project that I’m quite late handing in. Which means I’m taking a reprieve from a full post this week so that I can celebrate Labor Day-laboring! Thanks for understanding.
Yours in two rooms, the kitchen and my study,
Amanda
P.S. If you’re in search of some weekend reading, here are a few Homeward posts you might have missed:
A very frank convo on money
Amanda Hesser
·
Jul 3
Many of you have asked that I talk about how we budgeted for our house, and I’ve promised since the beginning that I’d write about money. I don’t see how you can write honestly or compellingly about home design without addressing the question of cost. Money is the subtext of every design detail. Not just how much you have, but your attitude about it, how much you value it, what your relationship with it is like.
Read full story
A drawer-by-drawer tour of my kitchen storage
Amanda Hesser
·
Apr 10
Today, we’re going to hang out in my kitchen. I’ve renovated home kitchens and test kitchens, but this is the first space of my own that I’ve been able to design from the ground up. Disclaimer: my kitchen is not as filled out and complete as I’d like, but I really wanted to show you its progress.
Read full story
My adventures in wood-fired pizza making
Amanda Hesser
·
May 1
The last time we talked about pizza, you gave me a bunch of advice and opinions on pizza ovens and I shared them in a post. Now it’s time to report back on my pizza journey (as well as on a new favorite sandwich that I recreated from a Texan food truck, recipe below).
Read full story
A pillow primer, based on your recs
Amanda Hesser
·
Apr 17
As you know, I’m being very selective about what comes into the Ojai house. Everything is carefully researched—either by going down internet rabbit holes or, even better, seeing things in-person and vetting them first-hand. Like I did with pillows recently.
Read full story
Why is home organization so emotional?
Amanda Hesser
·
Jun 5
Two updates to begin.
Read full story
With Walker home for the summer, we’ve had an abundance of pasta, rice, and proteins. So when I was paging through
Caroline Chambers
’s
latest book,
Make It Fast
, my eyes shot like a heat-seeking missile to her green soup with garlic toasts. Like many of Caro’s no-fuss recipes, the soup is fun to make because you’re essentially softening all of the ingredients—kale, spinach, mint, onions—in a pot, then grinding them to a silky puree in the blender. Now that I’ve had a small break from college-age cuisine, the next recipe on my list is the Triple Tomato Oven Orzo, made by roasting orzo with cherry tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, and a couple of spoonfuls of tomato paste. You can put it together in 5 minutes and let the oven do the work—precisely what Caro is known for on her excellent Substack,
What To Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking
.
Hella Green Soup With Garlic Toasts
Serves 4
Ingredients
:
Soup
1 pound fresh spinach
1 pound Lacinato kale
1 large white or yellow onion
2 celery stalks
2 Yukon Gold potatoes (about 12 ounces)
3 garlic cloves
¼ bunch mint
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 cups low-sodium vegetable stock (or BTB + water)
Garlic Toasts
1 small baguette, or ½ loaf crusty bread, sliced into 4 pieces
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
Flaky sea salt
½ to 1 cup heavy cream
Instructions
:
Make the soup:
Trim the stems of the spinach and kale leaves. Rinse them, leaving some water clinging to the leaves.
Place the spinach and kale in a large pot (if you’re using prewashed spinach, sprinkle in 2 to 3 tablespoons of water). Cover and cook over medium-high heat to steam until all the leaves are wilted and the stems are softening, 3 to 4 minutes. (Steaming spinach and kale separately before combining them with the rest of the ingredients locks in that bright green color—otherwise, the color can get muddy and not so pretty. And adding the fresh herbs at the end keeps their color and flavor bright.)
Use tongs to immediately transfer the spinach and kale to a high-powered blender. Repeat with the remaining spinach and kale. Blend on high speed until completely smooth, 3 to 4 minutes. (For the smoothest result here, you really want to use a high-powered blender; a food processor or an immersion blender won’t be up to the task.) Dump out the liquid from the pot.
Meanwhile, dice the onion, celery, and potatoes. Mince the garlic. Roughly chop the mint leaves (you should have about ½ cup).
Warm 2 tablespoons olive oil in the same pot over medium heat. When it shimmers, add the onion, celery, and 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened but not browned, about 8 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the coriander and cumin and cook until fragrant, 30 to 60 seconds.
Add the potatoes and stock. Turn up the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to medium, partially cover the pot, and simmer until the potatoes are very tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the toasts:
Position a rack in the center of the oven and turn the broiler to high.
Arrange the sliced bread on a rimmed baking sheet and coat both sides with olive oil. Broil until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes per side. While the toasts are still warm, peel and halve the garlic cloves and gently rub the cut-side pieces over one side of each toast. Sprinkle with flaky salt.
Stir the pureed greens and chopped mint into the soup. Working in batches as needed, blend the soup on medium high speed until very smooth, about 1 minute.
A safety note: When blending hot liquid, never fill the blender more than halfway. Before turning the blender on, remove the center cap from the lid and cover the lid with a folded kitchen towel. This lets the steam escape rather than building up pressure that can blow the lid off!
Return the soup to the pot. Stir in ½ cup cream, or more if you like it richer. Taste and add more kosher salt if needed.
Ladle the warm soup into bowls. Serve with the toasts whole, or break them into crouton-size pieces and float them on top.
Here’s how I made out:
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