Blended Broccoli Soup

Back to my favorite- Soup!

This recipe comes from the cookbook of my favorite co-op, Ocean Beach People’s in San Diego. I love this soup for how simple and healthy it is. It’s clean enough to be eaten on a cleanse, and light enough to be served as a first course. 

¼ cup olive oil

2 cups carrots, diced

2 cups celery, diced

2 cups yellow onion, diced

3 tablespoons garlic, minced

1½ teaspoons fresh thyme

2 teaspoons sea salt

1½ teaspoons black pepper

1 lemon, zested

8 cups vegetable broth

8 cups broccoli florets

4 cups spinach

**I like to add a few dashes of cayenne and I always double the recipe and add extra broccoli.

Sauté carrots, onion, celery, and broccoli stems in olive oil for 20 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add thyme, salt, pepper, lemon zest, broccoli, and broth. Bring to a simmer without letting it boil. (The soup retains a brighter green color and tastes better if the broccoli doesn’t get overcooked.) Once the broccoli is tender, remove from heat and add spinach. Blend the soup with an immersion blender, or let it cool slightly before doing it in a blender. The immersion blender is easier, but I prefer the blender (especially a vitamix) because it gives the soup a creamier texture.

Sprouted Sunflower Crackers

Sunflower seeds are high in vitamin E, which works to reverse the damage of atherosclerosis and improve the cardiovascular system. Vitamin E is also valued for its anti-inflammatory properties, which act on conditions like asthma, rheumatoid and osteo-arthritis, as well as digestive disease like Crohns and IBS. Sunflower seeds are also very high in thiamine, magnesium, folate, selenium, and B6. Selenium is protective against cancer as it induces DNA repair and synthesis in damaged cells, and helps the body get ready of damaged or abnormal cells. Another healing property of selenium is its ability to bind to toxic metals and carry them out of the body. This is important if you like to eat a lot of fish containing high levels of mercury (tuna, swordfish, shark, sea bass).

First soak sunflower seeds in a glass jar for 12-24 hours. Drain and rinse the seeds. Add 3 parts seeds, 2 parts greens and spices to a food processer and blend until smooth. Pour and smooth over Teflex dehydrator sheets. Score the sheet of into cracker-sized squares. Dehydrate on 115° for 24-36 hours. They should be crispy, but not to the point of being brittle.

Possible spice combinations:

Cumin, garlic, lemon, sea salt, cayenne

Curry, ginger, garlic, sea salt, splash of cider vinegar

Fresh basil, garlic, sea salt, dash of olive oil (basically pesto)

Cilantro, lime, garlic, chili powder, sea salt, onion

Kitchen sink: every spice you can think of

Possible greens:

Spinach, chard, kale, collard greens

**Pro tip- eat with mashed avocado, sea salt, lemon juice and cayenne. It's the healthy version of chips and guacamole. 

Ginger–Lime Tahini Sauce

Sauces are a great way to transform every-day vegetables into a tasty treat.  You can make the sauce ahead of time and keep it in the fridge so it’s ready for a batch of steamed vegetables or salad whenever you are. Having ready-made sauce makes healthy eating quick, easy, and delicious. This sauce is one of my particular favorites because the flavors are so well balanced. The tahini adds a satisfying richness to the lightness of vegetables, the ginger gives it some warmth, and the lime juice helps brighten it up a bit. I love it with tri-colored quinoa and a bunch of chopped raw veggies– usually shredded chard, red bell pepper, carrot, broccoli, and snow or sugar snap peas with green onion and sprouts. This also makes a great dipping sauce for spring rolls or wraps.

½ cup nama shoyu

½ cup tahini

¼ cup of sesame oil

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons agave or honey

2-inch piece of ginger (I like it really gingery and use 2-3 times this amount)

the juice of 1 lime  

a healthy dash of olive oil

Place all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth.

Soup!

My friends sometimes tease me about how much I love soup. I cook it year around and consider no occasion too special for its place on the table. One year I even had a soup-e-que for my birthday. (Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like– all soup, no barbeque.) I love soup because it’s healthy, satisfying, inexpensive, and you can eat the leftovers for days. Really, what’s not to love?

This recipe is a staple in my kitchen. It’s hearty, spicy and very satisfying. (not to mention delicious!)  I also like that you can modify this recipe and make a variety of soups from its base. 

Spicy Veggie Soup

1 cup of cooked brown rice

1 small can of garbanzo beans

1 tablespoon of olive oil

¾ cup of celery, chopped

1 cup yellow onion, chopped

½ cup of green beans

½ cup of corn

1 cup of carrots

1 cup of broccoli

28 oz. can of fire roasted crushed tomatoes

1½ teaspoons of thyme

2 bay leaves

1½ teaspoons of garlic, minced

1½ teaspoons of sea salt

1½ teaspoons of garlic powder

1 pinch of cayenne

A few drops of hot sauce

8 cups of vegetable broth

½ bunch of green onions

2 tablespoons of parsley, chopped

Get a big soup pot and sauté the celery, onions, and carrots in the olive oil until tender (about 20 minutes). Add garlic and spices and sauté for another few minutes. Add the broth, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, corn, green beans, and broccoli. Increase the heat and allow the soup to simmer. (I prefer not to let the soup boil- it over cooks the vegetables making them mushy and decreasing their nutritional content.) Once the soup is simmering, turn to low and allow to keep simmering until the green beans and broccoli become tender. Do not over cook! Remember that you‘ll be re-heating the soup over the next couple of days so it will get the chance to cook a little further. Garnish the soup with green onion and parsley.

For variation you can switch out the garbanzo beans for chicken. I’ve also added a dollop of plain yogurt and avocado slices to make it kind of like a healthy tortilla soup. The brown rice can also be substituted for quinoa or fingerling potatoes. Don’t limit yourself to the vegetables you see here– use whatever you like.