Roasted Broccoli Soup

This roasted broccoli soup recipe looked like a no-brainer and when my cousin offered me the pumpkin seeds (they’re the garnish) from her Halloween effort, it became a must-try. It makes about a quart of soup. The list looks long, but half of it is for the pumpkin seeds which can be made in advance.

Roasted Broccoli Soup

For the soup:

  • 2 pounds broccoli, stalks cut into ½” slices and quartered, and heads cut into florets
  • 10 tablespoons olive oil, divided use
  • 1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced (about 1 1/2 cups)
  • 4 medium cloves garlic, run through a garlic press
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
  • 1 1/2 quarts chicken stock
  • Salt

For the pumpkin seeds:

  • 1 cup pumpkin seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
  • Salt

Soup:

Preheat oven to 375°. Spread the broccoli on a large baking sheet and toss with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Roast until broccoli is tender and browned, about 25 minutes.

In a Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the coriander and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add roasted broccoli, buttermilk, and just enough stock to barely cover vegetables. Bring to a simmer, then remove from heat. Working in batches if necessary, transfer vegetables and liquid to a blender. Blend broccoli until a smooth puree forms (be careful and don’t over-fill the blender). Slowly add 4 tablespoons of the olive oil while blender is running. Return the soup to the pot and add as much of the remaining stock as necessary to thin to your desired consistency. Season with salt to taste. Serve with pumpkin seed garnish and enjoy!

Pumpkin Seeds:

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a mixing bowl, toss the pumpkin seeds with 2 tablespoons olive oil, coriander, cumin, mustard seeds and turmeric. Season with salt. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast until fragrant, about 10 minutes. Let cool. Taste and add more salt to taste.

My verdict:

There are things that work and things that don’t. In this case, the pumpkin seeds are definitely worth doing (although I added a lot more salt than the recipe called for), and make a great snack! Any kind of winter squash seeds will work as well. The soup on the other hand was a big disappointment. Even with multiple blending, it still had little tough bits of broccoli — probably from the stems — that were annoying. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a big broccoli taste either. I would have thought that roasting it would have given it a lot of flavor. Frank thought there was too much oil in it and I thought it badly needed seasoning, but even salt, cumin and lemon zest didn’t go far enough.

 

Share

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.