Cream of Broccoli Soup

Day 9

Cream of Broccoli Soup? Yes, please! I am a lover of soup. Ok, a lover of almost all food, but I appreciate a nice bowl of soup with some form of yummy bread once or twice a month.

Cream of Broccoli Soup with rye bread

Broccoli Sale!

This soup was inspired by a sale at Atlantic SuperStore on broccoli for $0.99 per head. And by "head" I mean two stalks!

Broccoli at the grocery store

So, I just scored 4 stalks of fresh, green broccoli for 1.98. Healthy, fresh food is generally pricey, so when a great sale like this happens along, it's a no-brainer. Soup's on.

Recipe

And btw, this is my own recipe. Made it up as I went. I make soup enough that I'm totes qualified to do that. haha

Ingredients:
4 stalks of broccoli
4 leeks, chopped
8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 tbsp butter
1 900 ml box vegetable broth
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Mix:
1/2 cup coffee cream
1 cup water

Laura went out to the garden to pick the leeks and thyme by flashlight. I headed out to take some pics :)

Laura harvesting leeks by flashlight
aka Laura outside foraging for food lol

Leeks and thyme

What to Do

Wash and steam the broccoli. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large soup pot and toss in the leeks and thyme leaves. Simmer until leeks are soft. Sprinkle with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Add steamed broccoli and vegetable broth. Remove from heat.

Simmering leeks, broccoli, etc

It will be steaming hot, despite adding the broth, so let it sit 10 minutes, then add it to the blender or food processor, in batches. Whiz it up until it's about as smooth as it's going to get. It will look like baby--um...food. Yeah, baby food.

Pureed broccoli/leeks in blender

Add it back to the soup pot and reheat until it barely starts to boil.

Creamy swirls in soup

Turn off heat (this is important) and slowly add the cream and water to the soup. Stir and taste for seasoning. Add more salt, pepper or nutmeg as desired. Altogether, this takes about 45 minutes to make.

Serve

We had ours with dark rye bread, which is so good with soup. My first idea was to have Laura mix up a batch of her yummy biscuits, and she agreed, saying she would make Cheddar Garlic Biscuits. But, then I remembered rye bread, which sounded easier and less messy so we went with that. This time.

Hearty, healthy broccoli soup with rye bread and cheese

Reviews/Comments

Laura loved it. I loved it. But, we're not hard to please. It really is very good though, like a 9/10. There is lots left, but we're not having it tomorrow. We're having something else. The soup would be a lunch option, though.

Make it Vegan

I know some of the milk substitutes would work in place of the cream. We had some almond milk on hand, but since there is an almond flavor to it, I wasn't sure it would work in the broccoli soup. I'm thinking some of the soy based creams would work. And the butter could have been substituted for non-dairy margarine or even water. It's just to cook the onions until clear.