Broccoli stalk soup

 

Broccoli stalk soup

Now, all food waste in our house goes into the compost or the food waste bin. However I do resent throwing away bits and pieces that appear perfectly edible or leftovers that can be transformed into a perfectly respectable new dish.

One item that used to really annoy was broccoli. In any purchase of the florets up to a third of the weight bought would be seemingly waste stalks. Not any more. Having been left with a pile of stalks after this Sunday’s roast dinner I resolved to be true to my frugal roots and find an answer. They reminded me of asparagus stalks so why not use them just like that?

Ladies and gentlemen let me introduce you to broccoli stalk soup. The resulting soup is surprisingly delicate, certainly not too fibrous and a winner in my house at least. It can be very easily whipped up for a lunch, pimped with a blue cheese croute  for a smarter starter or made with into a supper with a runny poached egg dropped into the middle and some crumbled bacon on top.

Broccoli stalks, onion and potato.

The stalks I had to hand today came from sprouting broccoli so only needed finely dicing. Larger stems from calabrese may need a quick peel and grating.

Fine dice!

Ingredients serves 2

1 handful of broccoli stalks finely diced

1/2 medium onion finely diced

1 medium potato finely diced

500 ml  liquid. (stock, water, white wine whatever made up to 500 ml)

salt

pepper

knob butter

slug olive oil

How to

• Chop the vegetables finely. See note above about thicker broccoli stalks.
• Put a pan over medium heat and sweat off the onions for a moment or two.
• Add in the broccoli stalks and cook for another 5 minutes. You don’t really want the vegetables to colour.
• Pour in the stock, slide in the potato and bring to a simmer for another 5 minutes or until the potato breaks up on touching.
• Allow to cool a little and then use a stick blender to blend until smooth.
• Reheat when needed and pimp as required. A little drizzle of chilli oil is perfect on a cold miserable day. season with salt and pepper and serve.

This freezes well. Use a plastic milk bottle to freeze individual portions.

 

I’m linking this to the March/April Credit Crunch Munch hosted by Fab Food 4 All and Fuss Free Flavours. Thanks for running this Blog Hop!