July 1, 2010

Leek and Broccoli Soup

leek and broccoli soup 2


Recently Bakers Delight sent me a couple of complimentary samples of their new sourdough. They have two varieties, fruit and olive. So once I received the bread I thought I might make something to go with it. Considering the recent cold snap we’ve experienced, I thought there’s no better way to warm up then by eating a big hot bowl of steaming soup. Not to mention soup is a great way to up your veggie consumption.


bakers delight bread


I often make a broccoli soup with crisp chorizo sausage on top. But I thought I might try something a little different and added leek to the mix. The leek adds a sweetness to the finished soup. I usually blend my soup up and make a thick puree, but because I felt especially lazy that night I decided to skip that step and kept the soup chunky. Eating the chunky soup actually makes you feel fuller, and not feel like a baby eating soft mushy food. I had my tonsils out a couple of year ago and for two weeks I survived on mashed peas, chicken soup (just the liquid) and KFC mash potatoes and gravy. I lost quite a bit of weight, but gained an unusual anxiety about mushy food.

leek and broccoli soup 5

I cut a couple of thick slices of olive bread and dunked it into the soup. The saltiness of the sourdough went really well with the smoky oily sausage. Daz and I went a little bread mad that night and managed to polish off the entire loaf. Well bread is best at its freshes, so we had no choice but to eat the entire thing.



bakers delight olive bread


This is a really easy and quick recipe. In fact its all cooked and served within 30min, great for a work night.

Leek and Broccoli Soup

Makes 3 big serves

INGREDIENTS

1 leek, sliced
2 heads of broccoli, stalk chopped into small pieces and florets chopped roughly
3 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
1.5 litres of chicken stock or vegetable stock
2 chorizo sausages, sliced

METHOD

1. In a large saucepan add a little olive oil over medium heat, add the leek and sauté. Allow it to soften, but not colour. This will take around 5 minutes. Add the garlic and allow to soften.

leek


2. Add the stalk of the broccoli and cook until slightly softened. Add the stock and the remaining broccoli. Cook on medium-high until all veggies are soft and the liquid has reduced slightly. You can add other veggies to the mix if you wish, potatoes are a really good addition – making the soup very thick and hearty. Season with salt and pepper to taste. You can leave the soup chunky or blitz it in a food processor to get a smooth soup.

3. Just before serving fry the chorizo sausage in a fry pan with a little extra olive oil. Allow the fat from the sausage to slightly render out.

chorizo


4. Serve the soup with a few pieces of sausage on top and a teaspoon or two of the oil from the fry pan. This will add a real smoky flavour to the soup.

leek and broccoli soup

7 comments:

cloudcontrol said...

This looks so yummy! I made potato and leek soup a couple of weeks ago, and then potato and broccoli soup just on the weekend! Great minds brave Winter alike. ;)

I like to roast my potato with the skins on before adding to the soup - I find it adds some umami to it - but still end up loading the soup with parmesan for want of salt. I'll try chorizo next time!

Betty @ The Hungry Girl said...

This is great! I've been looking for some quick and easy soup recipes! And I'm pretty lazy so I don't think I'd bother processing it til smooth either!

Sarah @ For the Love of Food said...

I was looking for a broccoli soup recipe and I like this simple version (esp with the chorizo on top). I just made a parsnip, celery and fennel soup and added sliced olive and pancetta sausage on top - it really takes a veggie soup up a level.

Megan said...

Oooh! Good job! Looks great. I'm not a big fan of sourdough though. But I love soup! And it's perfect for Winter :) I think I'll leave the sausage out and add chicken instead.

penny aka jeroxie said...

Winter soup is so good! And yes to sour dough bread

Adrian @ Food Rehab said...

Great combination with the sourdough bread. This would be a perfect after work- defroster, this week was feeeezing!

Iron Chef Shellie said...

yum! nothing like crunchy bread with soup.

Like the sound of that soup too *adds it to the pile of things to make*