Possibly The Easiest Broccoli Soup Ever (or pureed soup heaven)

I used to think I hated soup. Not really my thing. The cooked carrots in soup made me gag and I just can't handle the texture most veggies have after swimming around in broth for such a long period of time. But now I have to renege because I have discovered that pureed soup is my jam. I am obsessed.  Give me a veggie, some stock and my immersion blender and I will make it happen.

I had some kohlrabi in my fridge. And I love kohlrabi (super weird I know) but my grandpa used to grow it. Every summer I looked forward to getting some from his garden (along with a ton of sweet corn). I would just cut and eat it raw. Yummy, awesome goodness.  

Kohlrabi is also a super nutrient dense food (meaning it has a ton of stuff that is great for you for not that many calories.) It is rich in vitamin C and some B vitamins too. According to fitday.com it contains "vitamin B6, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid and folate. B vitamins play a role in increasing metabolic rates and maintaining healthy skin and hair." Seriously, I didn't need an excuse to love the stuff but anything that helps my metabolism goes straight to the top of my favorite list. They are like the teachers' pets of all the veggies out there. Gold stars all the way.


And, of course, broccoli is pretty awesome too. So this recipe is a win, win. Easy, fast, healthy and yummy (I may or may not start salivating when I think about it.)

Since soup has become my dumping ground for random veggies, I decided to take some inspiration from a broccoli soup recipe I found online and just modify it a little bit. It may be the best soup I’ve ever made (either that or I am just getting better with practice.)

Here is what I did –

2 boxes of veggie stock

2 heads of broccoli

2 large kohlrabi

1 sweet onion

TBS (or so) olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

I cooked the onion and kohlrabi in the bottom of the pot with some olive oil until the onion started to become translucent. I added the stock and the chopped up broccoli and brought it to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes. Let it cool and blend.

So it turns out kind of like a cream of broccoli soup sans dairy. Of course it isn’t as creamy as the real thing without the help of some type of dairy. If you aren’t avoiding dairy completely (or need a little something to make you feel like you are cheating) you can grate some parmesan on top or even add a little goat cheese. 

On a side note the original recipe called for just using water, boiling the broccoli in it, putting the broccoli in a blender and slowly adding the water back in until the soup was the desired constancy (You can check out the recipe I used for inspiration here.) I like stock and the flavor it gives it so I used stock. And if you don't have kohlrabi, skip it. Add a potato. Whatever. Just another reason I love making soup! It is hard to mess up. A great way to use up veggies that are (rapidly) heading toward their expiration date. And it is super easy to double or triple the batch, freeze and pull out on a freezing night -- like tonight-- or a day where getting a cooked meal on the table will just not happen. Heat and eat. Whoot!

Eggplant and Tomato Soup (more comfort food for fall....)

The theme with all of my recipe posts seems to be that I am trying to use up the veggies that come pouring in from my CSA. In this case it was eggplant --and one can only eat so much eggplant. I mean I love it fried and smothered in cheese and sauce but since my body no longer agrees with that dinner (my digestive system is all that was your gall bladders job girlfriend, if you try to make us do that we will make you pay!) I need to find another way to use eggplant. Much to my chagrin, I don't really like it minus the fried cheesy saucy goodness.

What I have found that I love about making soup is that it is hard to screw up and you can pretty much just dump stuff in a pot (aka cleaning out my fridge). It also freezes well, so I am not stuck with all the freezer burned veggies in January that  I lovingly tried to freeze correctly during the summer. Plus it is something I can throw in the crock pot, let reheat all day and come home to dinner. A dinner my toddler likes because it allows her to dunk things. Boom. It makes me feel awesome all around.

I originally saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen. (Which is a pretty awesome blog for really cool and
different recipes, although reader be warned most of them, while super delicious are not health recipes. Seriously the pictures alone will make your mouth water. So pin the super awesome dessert or grilled cheese ones for one of your cheat meals for sure!)  You can link to the original recipe here -- but this is what I did (my version involves much less measuring and more dumping and of course no dairy. Since I have found that processing diary was also part of my gall bladder's job description.)

Ingredients --

2 medium sized eggplants

tomatoes (in this case I used 2 large tomatoes and a handful of grape tomatoes I had on hand)

1 sweet onion

Garlic (in this case I used 2 heads of garlic but I love garlic so you can adujust this based on your personal relationship with garlic)

Olive oil

Balsamic Vinegar

32 ounces of vegetable broth

Turmeric

Salt to taste


Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Chop eggplants onion and tomatoes in half  and place them on a large cookie sheet or two. (Or if using grape tomatoes just toss them on the cookie sheet.) Also add the garlic.

Drizzle veggies with olive oil (I used a Misto to spray my veggies with olive oil) and I splashed them with balsamic vinegar.

Place in the oven and let roast 40 minutes to an hour (they should be slightly browned and tender.) I did add my garlic 20-30 minutes in so it wouldn't burn. With that said, I have also forgotten to roast the garlic and just add it to the pot later. Either way it turns out fine.

Allow the roasted veggies to cool enough to touch. Skin the eggplant -- the skin should peel right off.

Toss everything in a large soup pot.

Add the veggie broth and any spices you want to use. (I think the beauty of this soup is that you can add whatever spices you love. I have been obsessed with turmeric lately so I just dumped some in.)

Bring the soup to a boil. Turn down and let simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

Allow it to cool slightly and puree. (You can do this in batches in a food processor or use an immersion blender. Side note -- I love my immersion blender and use it daily.) This is where I usually taste test and add salt or any other spices I feel it needs.

Super easy and really yummy. It is one of those soups that is perfect for a fall or winter night with some really good bread. (I mean what is soup without good bread?)

I had a big bowl and packed the rest away in the freezer for later.

I have actually made this recipe twice and have varied the amount of tomatoes each time (based on what I had to use up. The only difference being it just tasted more like a yummy tomato soup the more tomatoes I put in -- makes sense. But you still get the benefits of the eggplant. (For more info on why eggplants rock check this out.)