Talk Healthy To Me

What do you do with your leftover broccoli stalks? I’ve always tossed mine directly into the garbage. However, I recently learned that pureeing your broccoli stems with broth results in a thick, creamy base for soup.

Since I love meal-based soups, I decided to do an internet search and found recipes that either looked a little bland for my taste buds or were laden with cream. I decided to make my own version, mashing together a few recipes and tweaking here and there. Using pantry (I only had canned mushrooms) and frozen vegetables, I created a soup that surprisingly I LOVED! Even got the thumbs up from hubby. Best of all, my Broccoli Stem Soup with Mixed Vegetables came together in an incredibly fast 15 minutes.

Below is the recipe for my version of Broccoli Stem Soup. (I included tips on how to make this even easier and heartier by adding lentils.)

Broccoli Stem Soup with Mixed Vegetables

-1 to 2 tsp olive oil (you can forgo oil instead water or broth sauté)
-1 onion, diced
-4 cloves garlic, minced
-stems from 2 heads of broccoli, sliced into rounds
-4 cups (1 quart container) low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth,
-1 container sliced mushrooms, 8 ounces
-1/2 cup frozen corn
-1/2 cup peas
-1 tsp basil
-few shakes red pepper
-salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil (can replace with broth or water) in large soup pot, sauté onions, once translucent add garlic, stir for a minute, add broccoli till tender. Stir frequently and add broth if needed so nothing burns.

Add rest of broth. Turn off heat. Stir.

While soup is cooling, sauté mushrooms in a small hot pan using just water to sauté (a few tablespoons at a time). Once mushrooms are soft turn off pan and put aside till soup is pureed. (I skipped this step because I only had canned mushrooms. I used 2 small cans. Fresher tastes much better!)

Now add soup ingredients to blender and make soup.

Put soup back into large pot, add corn, peas and cooked mushrooms.
Add in basil, red pepper, salt and pepper to taste.
*You can substitute one bag of frozen mixed vegetables instead of the corn, peas and cooked mushrooms. You’ll just have to heat longer.
**You can always canned rinsed lentils to make thicker and a fuller meal.

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