Nothing says comforting like a hot bowl of soup in the winters and if that soup is healthy that’s even better. Healthy cream of broccoli soup is a warm and nourishing bowl of broccoli goodness which taste so good that you will never know that it is healthy and vegan.
Sauteed aromatic veggies cooked with broccoli, chickpea and chickpea-broth or any good vegetable stock with added flavours of cinnamon and thyme. Now the boiled chickpeas are a pleasant surprise here, it provides the thickness and creaminess needed for any good cream of broccoli soup plus it makes the soup totally vegan.
Normally cream of broccoli soup has a combination of milk or cream or flour and butter for the thickening purpose which make this soup pretty high in fats and calories. But in my version chickpea not only provides the required creaminess but also it bumps up the protein content of this healthy cream of broccoli soup.
I have used the water in which I have cooked the dry chickpeas in place of vegetable broth here. It provides nice flavour and thickness to my broccoli soup but if you are using canned chickpeas feel free to use any good vegetable or chicken stock.
Healthy cream of broccoli soup
Course: Appetizers, SoupsCuisine: American, FusionDifficulty: Easy6
servings15
minutes30
minutesA healthy version of cream of broccoli soup containing broccoli, chickpeas and some warm spices.
Ingredients
2 lb of broccoli
1.5 cups of boiled chickpea
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium or 1 large carrots, chopped
5 garlic cloves
5 cups of vegetable broth or chickpea stock (See note below)
1 cinnamon stick and bay leaf
1 tsp of dried thyme
1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp of olive oil
- Optional ingredient :-
2 Tbsp of coconut cream or heavy cream or butter
Directions
- Cut the broccoli into medium size florets and chop its stem.
- In a 5-quart dutch oven, heat oil and add cinnamon, bay leaf, onion and saute until onion is translucent.
- Then add garlic, thyme, red pepper flakes, carrots, salt and pepper and saute again for 2-3 minutes.
- Now add chickpea broth (see note below for chickpea broth) or veggie stock and let it comes to a boil over medium-high heat.
- When the stock starts boiling, turn down the heat to low and add broccoli with its stems. Put on the lid and simmer until the broccoli is soft about 6-8 minutes.
- Take the pan off the heat and very carefully puree the broccoli mixture with the immersion blender or any regular blender. (Be very careful while pureeing the hot mixture in the blender. I like my soup a little on a grainy side, so I process the broccoli mixture into a semi coarse puree.)
- Now again heat the broccoli soup over medium heat for 3-4 minutes to heat it through and do the taste check. Add more salt or pepper if needed.
- At last, you can add coconut cream or heavy cream if you like, it is totally optional and your healthy cream of broccoli soup is ready to serve.
- Serve the hot bowl of healthy cream of broccoli soup with any crusty whole grain bread or croutons.
Notes
- For making chickpea broth, soak a cup of dry chickpeas in 4 cups of water for 8 hours, preferably overnight. Then next day, cook the chickpeas in 3-4 cups of water with one cinnamon stick, one bay leaf, 3 pods of cardamom and salt in a pressure cooker over medium heat until 3-4 whistles.
Then turn off the heat and let the pressure goes down by itself. Then open the cooker and drain the chickpeas through a colander over a large bowl to collect the stock. Take out the cinnamon, bay leaf and cardamom and discard. - Measure the stock and mix in the water to it make it about 5 cups of liquid. Now take out the required cup of chickpeas for the cream of broccoli soup and refrigerate the remaining chickpeas for 3 days or freeze it for 1-2 months. If using this chickpea broth instead of vegetable stock, don’t add cinnamon and bay leaf in step 2 mentioned above as you are already using it in the chickpea broth.
