Snappy Living DIY, Crafts, Food & Household Tips
Broccoli is a terrific food, but did you know you could make it into a soup? This is such an easy recipe, and it uses only the most nutritious and best tasting part of the broccoli – the florets – which means that even household members who hate broccoli may enjoy it this way. And you can tweak this recipe to your heart’s content. I’ve made some suggestions below, but there’s really no end to what you might add in or serve op top of this soup.
Broccoli Soup
I’ve modified this from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe, which you can find here. You’ll need:
- 1 large broccoli cluster. Choose broccoli that’s dark green and closed (not flowery).
- Water
- Salt and pepper
Like I said, easy. ere’s what you do:
- Remove the stalk from the broccoli cluster. You won’t be using the stalks in this recipe.
- Fill a large saucepan up most of the way with water, and bring it to a boil.
- Put a generous pinch of salt into the water. I use about a flat teaspoon of salt, or maybe not quite that much. This brings out a lot of flavor in the broccoli, and it’s not as much salt as it sounds like, once you break it down into servings. If you’re on a low-sodium diet and want to leave it out, use a salt substitute that’s meant to taste like salt.
- Put the broccoli florets in the water, and add another pinch of salt over the vegetables in the water. Put a lid on the pot.
- Cook for 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 minutes
- Put a colander in a pot and pour the broccoli into it. This separates the water (which is now broccoli stock) from the broccoli. Do not get rid of the broccoli stock – just put it aside.
- Put the broccoli into a blender. Add some of the stock, until the water level in the blender is about half as high as the broccoli.
- Turn the blender on and off quickly, two or three times in a row, to get the mixing process started smoothly. Then turn it up on high and blend until it’s almost pureed.
That’s it! It’s ready to serve with fresh ground pepper for your guests to add to their taste.
Serving suggestions
If you want to play with this recipe, there are quite a few ways to jazz it up. And because they can be done at the end, it makes it much easier to please a household of people with different taste.
- Add a dollop of sour cream on the top.
- Slice some goat cheese, brie or camembert on top.
- Sprinkle almond slivers over it.
- Toss some grated cheddar on top.
- Add some garlicky croutons.
- Sprinkle on just a few drops of hot sauce.
- Stir in a very small amount of garlic or onion salt.
- Roast a few garlic cloves, slice them thinly, and put a few slices top of each bowl of soup.
- Add cheddar and bacon bits. Go lightly to avoid losing the broccoli flavor – or go heavy if you’ve got a household member who can’t stand the soup on its own, but will eat it if it’s got enough other flavors happening!
Interesting! I normally use just the stalks to make cream of broccoli soup, since they keep their color better, so it’s nice to have a recipe for floret soup too!
My broccoli is producing side shoots so vigorously this year, I had to make a big batch of my usual soup a few days ago. This time I experimented a bit, and the results were great.
I sauteed 1 large carrot, julienned, and a big unpeeled potato, chopped, in a splash of olive oil, with sea salt and black pepper, in a covered soup kettle. (These are for sweetness and texture.) Then I added 1 onion, chopped, and several cloves of garlic, minced, and sauteed it some more, covered, until everything was soft. If you keep the burner temp at medium-low, the saute can happen while you’re cutting up the broccoli.
Then I added several quarts of cut-up broccoli stems and about 1 1/2 cups of water, and let it simmer til the broccoli was soft but still green. I’m impatient, so I stuck a stick blender into the pot and pureed the whole thing.
Then I added a squeeze of lemon, a tiny dash of nutmeg, a little pinch of cayenne, and a good dollop of heavy cream — maybe 1/4 cup. After that, it was just a matter of adding milk til I got a consistency I liked — maybe 1/2 cup? and a cup or so of grated cheese (I used “mexican blend” from the grocery store because I had some on hand), plus more sea salt and pepper to taste. Then I added about a tablespoon of butter to finish it — gives it a nice sheen and smoothness.
It made about 12 servings of very hearty soup, and it freezes well. (I use the plastic containers pudding comes in to freeze soup — they hold 2 modest or 1 large serving, and the taper on the sides is perfect for sliding a still-frozen lump of soup into a pan with a little liquid, to reheat.)
Re-reading the article, I wanted to make this comment on the palatability of broccoli.
If you cut a head of broccoli into spears, cook them (lightly) in a little salted water, then drain the water off while leaving the broccoli in the cooking pan, you can add a splash of balsamic vinegar and a little bit of good olive oil, put the lid back on the pot, shake it to distribute the oil & vinegar, then let it sit, covered, off the heat for a few minutes to finish cooking and absorb the oil & vinegar. It’s light, healthy, and a totally different vegetable.