Creamy Broccoli Soup and Beans, Greens, and Grain

Before I begin to write about the soup and bean dish I made, can I just share with you these amazing little bowls????  Aren't they the cutest little things you've ever seen?

 

There are actually 6 colors of these bowls at the store but I held myself back and bought only 4.  I think I may have to go back and get the last two colors!  I will drink chai out of these, eat soup out of these, serve dips and olives out of these and gee whiz I can just look at them and smile!  I need a 12 step program for bowl hoarders.  I love bowls and can't help myself from buying them. 

OK, the soup.....  I attended a vegan cookie exchange party last weekend and my friend, Amey (veganeatsandtreats.blogspot.com/) made this really delicious creamy broccoli soup for us.  I am not a huge fan of broccoli (give me a break, ok, I eat tons of kale and I will eat broccoli when it is served to me or I make it for my husband) but I loved this soup.  It was so warming and delicious.  She served it with a yellow bell pepper "creme".  I begged for the recipe and she gave me the link to this soup.  It came from what looks to be the PETA web site.  I was really excited because this means I can eat pounds and pounds of broccoli now in soup form and I love soup .... soup goes in bowls and you know how I feel about bowls, right?

The soup has 3 pounds of broccoli in it!

 

And 3 - 4 cups of fresh spinach!

 

And you serve it with a bell pepper creme - I used fresh bell peppers that I roasted (see the last blog post) and the whole thing was easy peasy to make and oh so delicious to eat.

 

Creamy Broccoli Soup with Red Pepper Creme

 

For the soup:

2 tbsp canola oil

2 onions chopped

4 stalks of celery, chopped

3 lbs of broccoli, stems trimmed and coarsely chopped/florets cut into bite sized pieces

8 cups of vegetable broth or water

1 tsp sea salt, plus more for seasoning

fresh ground black pepper

3 or more cups of fresh spinach leaves

 

1.  Heat the oil in a large cooking pot and add onions and celery.  Saute for about 5 minutes or until onions are translucent.

 

2. Add the broccoli stems and all but 4 cups of the florets and saute until crisp tender - maybe 10 - 15 minutes.  Stir occasionally to mix it all together and get things off the bottom of the pan.

 

3.  Add the stock, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the stems are really tender.

 

4.  Stir in the spinach and then let sit for a bit until spinach is really wilty.

 

5.  Use a hand held immersion blender or carefully blend in batches until the soup is thick and creamy.

 

6.  Add the reserved broccoli florets and cook over medium high heat until the florets are crisp tender (I overcooked them and they are mushy - not as good as Amey's!)

 

For the pepper creme:

1 red bell pepper, roasted

1/4 cup raw cashews

2 tbsp soy milk

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp sea salt

 

1.  Combine everything in a blender and blend until creamy smooth!

 

Ladle the soup into bowls and drizzle the red bell pepper creme on top.

 

 

 

With our soup, we ate a rice, beans, and greens dish topped with delicious Reed avocado from the Farmer's Market.

 

 

 

We eat a lot of beans - beans in soup, beans with rice, beans in tortillas, beans with sauteed vegetables.  I try to soak and cook beans every week so that we always have a pot in the frig waiting for eating.  I also freeze beans in quart baggies - usually 2 cups per baggy so that I have them on hand for easy access and I don't have to buy cans and cans of beans.

 

I found http://www.vegancoach.com/ and spent some time reading the blog.  She has a fantastic section on how to cook beans.  I took her advice and made the following concoction and our bean and grain dishes are now transformed.  I had this for dinner twice this week and brunch after a work out!

 

Beans, Greens, and Grain

 

1/2 cup grain of choice (cooked)

1 cup of beans of choice (cooked)

2 tbsp Bragg's Amino Acids

Water

2 tbsp tomato sauce

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

2 tbsp "seedalicious" (recipe to follow)

pinch of chili pepper

salt and pepper to taste

3 - 4 cups of greens (chard, kale, spinach, bok choy, beet greens, etc)

 

1.  Put the cooked grain and beans in a large saute pan with the Bragg's amino acids and a bit of water.  Heat thoroughly and stir once in awhile.

 

2.  Add the other ingredients without the greens and heat and stir.

 

3.  Add the greens on top, turn down the heat, cover with a lid and let the greens steam.

 

4.  Mix it all up and put it on a plate or in bowls and enjoy the heck out of it!

 

"Seedalicious"

2 tbsp flax seed

2 tbsp sunflower seed

2 tbsp pumpkin seed

2 tbsp sesame seed

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

 

Blend this all together.  Use this on top of salads, soups and stews, vegetables, beans, oatmeal, grains. Store in the refrigerator.

 

 

Here's the dinner - big bowl of creamy broccoli soup with a large side of beans, greens, and rice covered with avocado chunks.  I used very little added oil to any of the cooking.  The entire vat of soup has only 2 tbsp of oil and the bean dish has no oil.  The fat comes from whole foods like flax, nuts and seeds, and avocado - couldn't get your fat from better sources than that!