mmm… Monday! Broccoli, pea and basil soup

A couple of months ago we bought the famous healthy recipe book by the Hemsley sisters, The art of eating well, and since then we have tried some of their recipes in an attempt to eat more greens and step up our healthy lifestyle game. Well, the recipes are surprisingly good! They cauliflower crust pizza has become our absolute favourite dinner treat and the courgetti puttanesca are simply amazing. We are not going to lie: real pasta and cheesy pizza are better. But these options are healthier and they taste remarkably good as well. So, since it’s all about balance… why not including these better for you versions in your weekly menu? And then you can have chocolate for pudding. That’s what balanced diet means, right?

This broccoli, pea and basil (thick) soup has been our go to dinner lately. We prepare a big batch on Sunday so that we can enjoy a comforting warm bowl of soup whenever we want during the week. Do you know that lazy feeling when you come back home after a hard day of work, it’s raining and you just want to sit on the sofa and eat something warm and tasty? Well, this soup has you covered.

You’ll need:

2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil (the Hemsley sisters don’t use olive oil but we can’t cook with anything else)

2 large onions, roughly chopped

2 garlic cloves, diced

3 celery sticks, roughly chopped

A large pinch of dried oregano

80 g fresh basil (you’ll need the stalks chopped, reserve the leaves)

1,5 kg broccoli

1,5 l vegetable stock

500 g frozen peas

juice of 1/2 lemon

a little Parmesan

Black pepper (they use salt but since our vegetable stock was already salted we don’t add salt)

Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a sauce pan (low heat) and fry the onion for 10 minutes. Stir every now and then. Add the garlic, celery, oregano, and chopped basil stalks and stir. After 5 to 10 minutes add the broccoli, vegetable broth, pepper o taste (this is when you add salt if you want but it’s not really necessary) and keep on stirring. Let everthing cook for about 15 minutes. It’s important not to overcook the broccoli.

Remove from the heat and add the frozen peas, the basil leaves and the lemon juice. Blend the soup until you get a purèe texture. If it’s too thick you can add more broth. And that’s it!

Serve with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and some Parmesan on top.

We can’t recommend you the Hemsley sisters’ book enough! For us it’s a new way of cooking, different from what we would usually prepare… But that’s part of the fun!

Filed under: mmm... Monday!