Broccoli soup with coconut milk

My baker friend Acquiline aka Accu gave me these gorgeous soup bowls and I think I have inaugurated the bowl in a pretty good way :). I love soups and so does Adya, mil/ fil. So we make soups pretty often. Out of the soups we make, broccoli stalk one is the most common because Adya loves broccoli and whenever he comes with me to the grocery store, he makes sure to pick up broccoli :D. I used to throw out the broccoli stalks up until a few years back when I realised I could totally use/ consume that as well. Over the years, we actually seem to like the broccoli soup made out of stalk better than the florets :D. We save the florets for other curries or to make this super crispy microwave broccoli that all of us love and which I realised isn’t blogged as yet :D. Adding coconut milk to my soups is something I started doing a few months back and realised how much it adds to the taste of the soup and how much I like doing this. I feel so satiated when I have a huge bowl of this soup. I am mentally and physically so happy. My sil, bro, mom like this too and my sil has started making more soups now and in most cases diligently adds the coconut milk part :). So please try this out and am sure you will like it.

In other news, Adya’s vacations have begun and we plan to move houses (within Dubai) in a week’s time. While I am looking forward to living in the new house, I am kinda dreading the actual move since it’s my actual big move in a really long time. The first one where I am not moving places where all my stuff fit in a few suitcases :). Mil, Adya and I have been stepping out every single day of the week in the evenings preparing for the move. While it’s exciting and interesting, it’s exhausting and not to mention we are doing all this in Dubai’s peak summer :). Adyant is having a ball of a time though, loving all these new purchases, discussions around it and very much contributes (this includes productive and unproductive contributions :D).

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Broccoli soup with coconut milk

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Grind time

5 mins

 

Course: Appetizer, Soup

Cuisine: Indian

Servings: 4 cups

Ingredients

• 2 medium broccoli stalk
• 1/2 no carrot (medium)
• 1/2 no celery stalk
• 1 no onion (slightly large)
• 4 no garlic pods (big)
• a small piece ginger (1/2t ginger)
• 1 no big bay leaf
• 1 small piece cinnamon stick
• 1 no clove
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 3/4 tsp rock salt
• 1.5 tsp olive oil
• 1.5 cups coconut milk

Extraction of Coconut milk at home

• 1/2 stacked cup grated coconut
• 1.5 cups hot water

Instructions

Prep veggies

1. Peel the onion, garlic & ginger skin. Wash the 2 broccoli stalk, 1/2 carrot, 1/2 celery stalk, 1 onion, 4 pods garlic, a small piece ginger.

2. Chop all the veggies roughly. Set it aside

Make coconut milk (if you are not using store bought)

1. In a mixer jar (I use a nutribullet for this to avoid any leak issues), place 1/2 stacked cup grated coconut.

2. Add 1c hot water.

3. Grind for 1 minute continuously.

4. Pour the ground mixture into a nut milk strainer/ muslin cloth and squeeze all the water out onto a clean vessel.

5. Put the pulp back into the mixer jar, add 1/2c hot water and grind again for 1 minute.

6. Strain the milk using a nut milk strainer/ muslin cloth onto the vessel.

7. Your coconut milk is now ready.

8. Discard the coconut pulp.

Making the soup

1. In a small pressure cooker, heat 1.5t olive oil

2. Once hot, add 1 bay leaf, 1 small piece cinnamon stick, 1 clove, 1t black pepper and saute for 10-15 seconds.

3. Now throw in the roughly chopped ginger, garlic and onion.

4. Saute till the onions become translucent.

5. Now add the roughly chopped carrot, celery and saute for 15-20 seconds.

6. Add the roughly chopped broccoli stalks as well and give it a stir.

7. Now add 1.5c water, 3/4t rock salt and pressure cook for 4-5 whistles.

8. Let the pressure release naturally.

9. Open the cooker and using a hand blender, grind/ blend the cooked veggies.

10. Add the coconut milk.

11. Check and adjust the salt and pepper.

12. Bring the mixture to a boil (As soon as you see the soup bubble up on the side), turn off the heat.

13. Serve hot! I had crisped some broccoli in microwave and used that in the soup for some crunch.

Recipe Notes

1. If you don’t have a hand blender, just take the veggie chunks and grind that using a mixer jar. 
2. You could use store bought coconut milk instead of homemade. 
3. You could use 1 green chilli along with the rest of the spices. Since Adya has this and loves this, I use just black pepper. 
4. While celery is just a very small ingredient in this dish, it adds so much taste & flavour. So if you can get your hand on celery, please get a bunch, clean them, cut them up into pieces and shove a batch in the freezer. Let’s be realistic, I don’t know anyone who can finish an entire bunch of celery stalk in a week :). I usually buy a bunch, keep a few in the fridge and the rest go in the freezer for use later. This way I always have celery on hand whenever I decide to make soup.