Dairy Free Broccoli Soup

This is my first Autumn here in Ireland. I am in love with the scenery around me. The shades of trees from,green to the different hues of orange adorning the streets are a thing of beauty. And the falling leaves scattered around made me want to bring some home and photograph it. Which I did.The photo is in my Instagram feed.

The days are short and weather is getting colder. And I crave more warmth and often find myself in front of the heater or making something hot to drink or eat.

Growing up we had bone broth with lots of vegetables every week and that was called soup. A big bowl of rice with copious amounts of bone broth and spicy condiments was the norm for a Sunday lunch. Beads of perspiration would appear on my nose while I scrape down the last bit of the meal with the spicy sambal. That's how it was supposed to be in the humid climate in Sri Lanka. It's not that you crave soup in that weather rather it's a norm, probably passed down from the Colonialists.

Back in Dubai,and when I was perusing the food photos and blogs online I didn't understand the craze for all these soups,be it a fall soup,winter soup..Do they even have summer soup ? Ahh,it's gazpacho. And I never had the need for such a soup. So creamy with no bits and blobs of vegetables,meat and spices floating around,it was so not me.

I don't really remember when and how I made a pureed soup for the first time but when the kids devoured it, I was hooked. It wasn't bad after all. In fact, it tasted so good.
Now I know the why soups are the comfort food here in this weather. It's easy to make,feeds a crowd and warms you up.

Make this creamy broccoli soup and serve it with some toasted rustic bread. We have it with soda bread,so popular here in Ireland. Soda bread is unique to Ireland and it's an unleavened bread without yeast ,baked using either baking soda or buttermilk.

Broccoli Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 large head of broccoli cut into florets
1 small onion chopped
2 garlic cloves minced
1 medium potato quartered
1 vegetable stock pot (MSG free)
3 ½ cups of water
½ teaspoon cumin powder
Ground black pepper
Salt
Oil

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Heat oil in a pan. Add onion and garlic. Saute till the onions sweat.
Add broccoli,potato,vegetable stock,cumin powder and mix. Stir the vegetables for about 2 minutes.
Add water and bring to a boil. Simmer till the vegetables are cooked.
Take off the heat and let it cool for a while. Puree the soup in a blender or using an immersion blender.
Bring the pureed soup back to the pot again and check seasoning. Add salt and pepper.
Warm the soup and take off the fire.
To serve, pour into soup bowls and garnish with pan fried broccoli florets. You can add coconut cream or soy cream if you prefer.
And a drizzle of chili oil will round off the flavor nicely with spicy kick.
Serve with toasted bread.

My Notes:
I have used a small Knorr vegetable stock pot which is MSG free and all natural. You can use stock cubes and use accordingly for one litre of liquid. Alternatively,use chicken stock or homemade broth and omit the water.