Creamy Broccoli No Cheddar Soup

Posted on by llbalanced
Creamy Broccoli No Cheddar Soup
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    [post_title] => Creamy Broccoli No Cheddar Soup
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01.01

Happy New Year dear friends!

I'm excited about this recipe. This recipe was an opportunity.

I was given cart blanche by Families Connect to create a January post-holidays recipe. Typically, this kind of recipe would manifest in the form of a green juice, a raw salad with a teaspoon of vinaigrette, or perhaps a twenty-ingredient malorodous tea. And if you trust me, as I hope you do, you'd make said recipe, grimace it down and expect to negate your holiday indulgences.

But it doesn't, and really shouldn't, work like that. Going on a juice cleanse in the coldest month of the year might pump some nutrients into your body, but it won't undo three months of poor choices. What it will do is leave you shivering during the day and tip-toeing to the pantry at midnight.

Broccoli soup 5 (1 of 1)

In my humble opinion, the best kind of post-holiday recipe is nutritious, of course, but also delicious and warming and something you're excited to eat. Something sustainable. Because the long-term goal isn't to need a post-holidays "cleanse". The goal is to learn to make good choices most of the time so there's always welcome room for indulgences. The goal is to enjoy a holiday party, check out the spread and say "what do I want here, why, and is it worth it?" and make a selection accordingly. This takes time and practice, but you can get there.

Honoring this new concept of a post-holiday recipe, I give you Creamy Broccoli No Cheddar Soup. It is luscious, rich in flavor but overall simple and comforting. It houses the free-radical fighting compounds found in broccoli and onions, as well as a host of nutrients from an entire "hidden" bag of spinach. And it has fat—yes, good ole fat—in the high quality forms of coconut milk, butter and olive oil. So you're actually full after eating this.

Broccoli soup 4 (1 of 1)

If you want to turn this amazing soup into a meal, throw in some chickpeas, pulled chicken or sausage or some seared cubed tempeh. Enjoy!

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TOTAL TIME :1hour
8servings
INGREDIENTS
  • 8 rounded cups broccoli florets (2 inch pieces)
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 sweet white onion, sliced into 1/4 inch half-moons
  • 2 tablespoons grassfed butter
  • 1/3 cup spelt flour (sub whole wheat or brown rice)
  • 1 tablespoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 tablespoon low-sodium Tamari (sub soy sauce)
  • 1 32 ounce container low-sodium chicken broth (recommend free range organic)
  • 2 cups full fat coconut milk (canned)
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 6 ounce bag organic baby spinach
DIRECTIONS
  1. Preheat oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Add half of your broccoli florets to the baking sheet and drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Toss to coat. Bake for 20 minutes or until tops are browned. Remove and set aside.
  2. In a large soup or stock pot, heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil to medium high heat. When oil is slightly shimmering, add sliced onions. Allow to cool without stirring until the onions burn a bit around the edges. Then stir and continue to cool until they are completely softened and golden brown, approximately 15 minutes.
  3. To the onions, add butter, flour, sea salt, black pepper and nutmeg. Stir and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add tamari, chicken broth, coconut milk, water and remaining 4 cups broccoli florets. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 20 minutes or until broccoli has softened. Add roasted broccoli and spinach and turn off heat. Allow spinach to soften for a 1-2 minutes. Using an immersion blender, puree soup. You can also pour it into a blender in batches. If so, add soup back to pot and heat again to simmer.
  4. Cook soup another 10 minutes, tasting for salt and pepper. Enjoy with garnishes of choice. Some ideas are: sunflower seeds, extra coconut milk, grated cheese, fresh herbs, chopped bacon.
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