The internet is a magical place. On my way to the store the other day, I did some brainstorming. I was craving a thick soup, something with which I could use my favorite appliance – the immersion blender – and sneak in some new vegetables (not that I am ending my love affair with kale any time soon). I pulled out my phone and searched “pea soup”. After a bit of browsing I landed on this recipe. Much like the cauliflower soup I made a few weeks ago, it was simple and wouldn’t require many ingredients…and I just had a good feeling about it.
I was right. It was just as creamy as the cauliflower soup and left room for improvisation. Check out my adapted recipe below and enjoy this guilt-free soup!
Ingredients:
2 leeks, trimmed, washed and diced (Trader Joe’s has a pre-trimmed 2 pack of leaks in the refrigerated produce section)
3 cups of broccoli florets
1 cup of almond milk
1 cup of broth (I dissolved a vegetable bouillon cube in 1 cup of boiling water)
1 shallot, diced
1 bag of frozen peas
2 teaspoons of olive oil
Salt, pepper, and spices to taste
Directions:
In a large sauce pan, saute shallots and leeks over medium heat with olive oil for 5-8 minutes or until the leeks have fully softened and broken down into smaller yellow and white rings.
Add in peas, broccoli, almond milk, broth, and any spices (I added 1 teaspoon of sea salt, 1/2 teaspoon of pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt, 1/2 teaspoon of paprika, and a couple shakes of crushed red pepper flakes). Stir.
Turn the heat up to high and cover the pot, allowing the liquid to come to a boil. Continue to cook the vegetables on medium to high heat for 15-20 minutes or until the broccoli has softened.
Remove from heat, stirring once more, and either pour into a blender (blend on high until evenly smoothed) or use an immersion blender to uniformly blend the soup in the pot (check out my handy dandy new spoon-holder…thanks Mom!).
Serve with: a squeeze of lemon juice or cheese (crumbled goat, fresh ricotta). I chose to serve mine up with some flaked Parmesan.
