A Simple Soup

Snow, hail and hurricanes on the East Coast--here in California, it's another perfect day. I harvested a few tomatoes from last year's plants and the collard greens then pulled up the plants, turned the soil and started my spring planting: tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, beans, potatoes and chard. A second crop was ready of the English peas planted at the beginning of January--so what to do with the collard greens and peas? I made this simple soup with quinoa, and wanting some protein, stirred in an egg. Delicious!
Soup With Quinoa, Green and Fresh English Peas:

1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup quinoa
1 stalk celery, deveined and sliced
1 quart vegetable (or chicken) broth
about 2 cups of chiffonaded* collard greens
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon ground sage
1 teaspoon garlic powder
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1 egg, stirred together
Melt the butter in a soup pot over low heat and stir in the quinoa and celery.  Add the broth and bay leaf, turn up the heat to bring the broth almost to a boil, then turn back down to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until the greens are tender. Add the sage, garlic powder, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste (I used about 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper). When the soup is seasoned to your liking, stir in the egg. Cook and stir gently for a minute until the egg is cooked.