I first tried hearts of palm in salads when we were in Costa Rica, and I fell in love with this, but did not know much about it. Then this year we went to South America, and us being vegetarian, did have lots of salad there and almost everywhere they had hearts of palm in salads, which of course I loved ! Then on the last day of our trip, we were in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and had dinner at the restaurant "Zomato" in our Hotel Windsor Excelsior Copacabana. To my surprise they had this heart of palm soup.
Needless to say, I absolutely loved it and asked the server if they use white sauce (roux) to make this soup and he informed us that they use corn starch. What I liked about the soup that it was not totally creamy, it had slices of heart of palm which gave a good hearty texture to the soup.
I came back and bought two cans of Heart of palms, one I used in a salad that I made earlier and decided to make this soup with the second can after some research.
It came out very good. I must share the recipe with you. First I want to tell you little bit about hearts of palm. Brazil is actually one of the largest producers of hearts of palm. Ecuador and Costa Rica are the two other largest producer of this delicacy.
So what are Hearts of palm ? The heart of palm is the core of the stem of the palm tree from various varieties. The harvesting of the palm tree is completed when the the palm tree is about 10 feet high. When harvesting the cultivated young palm, the tree is cut down and the
bark is removed, leaving layers of white fibers around the center core.
During processing, the fibers are removed, leaving the center core or
heart of palm. The center core is attached to a slightly more fibrous
cylindrical base with a larger diameter.The entire cylindrical center core and the attached base are edible. The center core is considered more of a delicacy because of its lower fiber content. Once the outer shell which is taken off they are packed typically in cans or jars. Fresh hearts of palms are not easily accessible they tend to be crispy and crunchy. The canned or jarred version is he one that cane easily be found.
Hearts of palms have been eaten for thousands of years in Central and South America. Hearts of palm have lot of nutritional benefits they are rich in fiber, potassium, iron, zinc, phosphorus, copper, vitamin B12, B6, and C. It tastes like a cross between asparagus and artichoke. I prefer this to artichoke but hard to find in stores. Costco used to carry it one time, but now our stores don't have it. I bought it from Walmart. 
- 1 (14 or 16 oz) can of hearts of palm
- 4 tablespoons butter: divided in two tablespoon each
- 2 tablespoon of Olive oil
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 2-3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 3 tablespoon of cornstarch
- 2 cups of vegetable broth
- 1/2 pint of heavy cream
- 1 cup of white wine
- 1 cup of half and half
- 1 cup of shredded white cheddar cheese
- 1 teaspoon of salt or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup of fresh chopped cilantro or parsley leaves
- One bunch of green onions finely chopped with green part, add some of the white part to the chopped yellow onions.
- 3/4 cup of water
- Open the can of hearts of palm and save the liquid.
- Cut the hearts of palm in to slices and divide them in two parts.
- In a large deep pan heat 2 tablespoon of butter and olive oil over medium heat.
- Add yellow and white part of green onions and saute for 5-6 min, stirring occasionally.
- Add garlic and cook for additional one min
- Sprinkle 3 tablespoon of corn starch and cook everything stirring on medium heat for 3 min.
- Add 2 cups of vegetable broth and liquid from the hearts of palm can.
- Add half of the hearts of palm and cut the other half in small but chunky pieces.
- Stir constantly until thicken a little.
- Add one cup of white wine and bring it to boil.
- Add nutmeg, white and black pepper.
- Add cream, and rinse the container with cream carton and add that water, stir constantly.
- Add 1 cup of white cheddar cheese
- Keep it on medium heat and stir constantly.
- Add half and half and other half of butter (2 tables spoon)
- Simmer for 5 min on medium to low heat.
- Turn the heat off.
- Mix with hand blender until smooth.
- Fold in of the sliced and chopped hearts of palm and simmer for additional 2-3 min.
- Turn the heat off and fold in half of green onion and cilantro and keep aside the rest of garnishing.
- Serve hot or chilled, garnish each bowl with green onions and cilantro.
- I served it with garlic bread.
I love Cilantro and not too crazy about parsley but you can use parsley instead.
You can just use the cilantro and green onions for garnishing instead of folding them in or can totally omit the garnish and just serve plane creamy soup.
Instead of cheddar cheese you can use Parmesan cheese or totally omit the cheese.
You can serve this soup hot or chilled, but I prefer hot !
This recipe is inspired by the cream of heart of palm soup at the restaurant "Zomato" in Hotel Windsor Excelsior Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Recipe by Surekha adapted from a recipe on line by an author Mike Benayoun.
Photographs by Surekha.
