The weather is still bitterly cold and a bowl of hot soup is often the perfect box ticker after being out and about all day.
I’m a big fan of making soups out of any vegetables that happen to be hanging around in the depths of the fridge, because generally I believe pretty much any combination can make a soup with the right herbs and flavourings.
I had for some reason hoarded a rather large amount of spinach and broccoli, so that was my ingredients and after a quick google, I found a super quick, well reviewed recipe on the EverydayHealthyRecipes blog, that used those two vegetables plus a couple of other store cupboard staples.
Slightly thrown, initially by the term ‘broccoli rice’ on the recipe – which turned out to be finely chopped broccoli – this was the quickest to cook and so simple.
Equipment wise you just need a blender and a saucepan.
Ingredients:
- ▢ 1.1 pounds (500 g) broccoli, florets and stalk roughly chopped *see Instructions
- ▢ 3.53 ounces (100 g) spinach
- ▢ 2 garlic cloves chopped
- ▢ 1 onion chopped
- ▢ 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ▢ 3-3½ cups (750-850 ml) vegetable stock hot
- ▢ Pepper to taste
- Prepare the broccoli rice by cutting off the broccoli stalk, slicing off the tough outer layer and chopping the stack roughly, along with the florets before adding into the blender. Blitz until the mixture becomes crumbly (not mushy) Avoid overcrowding the blender and make broccoli rice in batches if you have to.
- Dissolve the stock cubes in the hot water.
- In a large pot heat up the oil, add the garlic and onion and fry over a medium heat for 2 minutes, stirring often. Add the broccoli rice and continue cooking for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the spinach, pour in ¾ of the stock, cover and bring to a boil, then simmer for 3 more minutes. Puree the soup, add the remaining stock if necessary, adjust the seasoning (I only added some pepper) and enjoy!
This makes about four decent sized portions.
Because I’m obsessed with nutritional yeast flakes to EVERYTHING, both for flavour and the hefty amount of vitamins (especially and essentially B12!), I added a scoop to the mix.
This whizzed up so easily and with no time at all I was dividing up into pots for freezing. Frozen soup is best defrosted and consumed within three months.
Serve hot with a nice chunk of crusty bread for dipping!
THE LOCAL VEGAN 