Name: Raw Cavolo Nero Soup (Vitamix)
Prep time: 2 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 7 min
Ingredients: 3 leaves cavolo nero ((or savoy cabbage)); 1 onion; 400 ml reduced fat coconut milk; 500 ml water; 1 tsp green Thai curry paste; 1 vegetable bouillon cube; 300 g butternut squash (chopped into chunks (or use frozen)); 1 tsp sesame seeds (optional); salt (optional - I used black salt in pictures here)

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A spicy raw green smooth Cavolo nero soup recipe made with a Vitamix blender. My Vitamix machine was originally gifted by their PR company although this post wasn’t directly commissioned and written some time later.

What’s green and goes red at the flick of a switch? The answer – brace yourselves for being grossed out – is a frog in a liquidiser.

Although a die-hard Muppets and Kermit the Frog fan, this was my all time favourite joke when I was my son’s age. Indeed I had many favourite jokes and used to sit in the car reading them aloud to my long suffering parents.

And it was my lurid green cavolo nero soup today that reminded me of this old joke. My ingredients started out mostly orange from the butternut squash but turned frog coloured once the Vitamix had done its five minute soup program blitz.

Ok so it’s very green and crunchy Cavolo Nero soup

Now I won’t lie. Soup made with raw veg is an acquired taste – rather like wheat grass shots in Crussh. But once you’ve got your head around that, it oozes freshness in every spoonful. To spice things up I added some Thai green curry paste.

If I’m honest, I never imagined this soup would go quite so green. I thought it might have green bits in it but be mainly orange. Well duh, the Vitamix doesn’t “do” bits so lurid green, spicy soup we have and it’s all the better for it.

Buying Cavolo Nero cabbage and alternatives

Cavolo nero is something I was first introduced to in the River Cafe Cookbook. It’s an intensely dark green brassica. Cavolo Nero is popular in Italy, as you might have guessed from the name. In the late 90s, even in west London it was tough to track down but today I’ve got from from Tesco Finest range. They even sell it in Aldi sometimes.

If you’ve not tried Cavolo Nero before it’s a similar intensity to spinach but with tougher leaves more in common with Savoy cabbage. I saved money on a buy one get another half price type offer and it kept for weeks in the fridge drawer hence my reference below to the No Food Waste Challenge and Credit Crunch Munch.

If you really can’t find Cavolo Nero then substitute with Savoy cabbage.

Using the Vitamix Soup Program

The video above is from my Brocolli Cheese Soup but the principal technique is the same. To see how you would make cavolo nero soup using the Vitamix soup program take a look, particularly from 25 seconds in. (Edit 2025: I’m pleased to report I’m over 50lb lighter than when this was recorded)

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