I pride myself on my ability to stretch groceries so that I don’t waste anything, and this roasted broccoli soup is a perfect example! It’s made from the leftover broccoli stems that a lot of people throw out, so you’ll get an extra bang for your buck! The stems are actually full of flavor and make a delicious and creamy soup.
Note that I used chicken broth for this recipe and topped the soup with some Greek yogurt, but you could easily swap out chicken stock for veggie stock and omit the yogurt to make this recipe completely vegan. Either way, it’s easy, inexpensive, filling, and totally delicious.
Roasted Broccoli Soup Ingredients:
- 5 broccoli stems (this is just the number of stems I had. You can adjust based on what you have on hand)
- 1 small yellow onion
- 4 large cloves of garlic
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- Pinch of nutmeg
- 3 cups chicken stock
- Large handful of raw spinach (about a cup)
- Squeeze of fresh lemon juice to taste
- Greek yogurt for garnish
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
Start by preparing your broccoli stems. Cut off about a quarter inch at the end where the broccoli has gotten dried out, and just go around the outer edges and cut off any dry or rough fibrous pieces. You don’t have to cut much off, but you just want to make sure that you’re left with clean stems of broccoli and you remove any tough pieces of the outer layer. Next slice your broccoli stems into ¼ inch rounds.
Cut your onion into ½ -1 inch pieces, and peel the garlic cloves, but leave the cloves whole. Toss the sliced broccoli stems with the onion, garlic, oil, salt, and pepper.
Place the veggie mixture on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, or in a large cast iron skillet (this is what I did).
Roast your broccoli stems at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes until everything is tender and starts to get brown edges.
Let the veggie mixture cool slightly, then purée the broccoli mixture, chicken stock, and raw spinach until smooth. Note that the raw spinach is pretty undetectable, but gives an added boost of nutrients, and makes this soup nice and green. You could always omit the spinach if you don’t have it, but I think it’s kind of fun to have the soup a nice green color.
Finish the roasted broccoli soup with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to taste, and season with additional salt and pepper if needed. I like to serve this with a dollop of Greek yogurt on top for added creaminess and tang.
This recipe makes about 2 ½ big bowls of soup, or about 4 small cups of soup.
Enjoy!