This nourishing Broccoli Soup With Almond and Quinoa recipe has been graciously shared by fellow Food Revolution Ambassador, Irena Tomazin. Irena is from Slovenia and was travelling Western Australia with her family when we met her. I wrote about our meeting with Irena and the great work she is doing with Educating Kids About Real Food here.
Irena’s website translates to Healthy Soup in English.
Ingredients
Makes 1 litre of Soup:
- 300g broccoli
- 150g zucchini
- a handful of green leafy vegetables (baby spinat, kale)
- 40g quinoa (or buckwheat)
- 800ml of water
- 100ml of oatly or soy cream*
- 30g almonds
- 1 teaspoon Himalayan salt.
- a pinch of ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon of fresh or dried herbs (thyme, lemon grass)
* In Australia, you may not be able to find oat or soy cream, but oat cream seems easy to make. Check this recipe from Dairy Free Wiki or this one from Taste Celebration. You could also use dairy cream if you wish.
Method
- Soak almonds overnight
- Rinse almonds well and peel them (not necessary but soup will be sweeter if you do)
- Blend the almonds together with some water (around 150ml) till it forms smooth almond cream
- Wash the vegetables (broccoli, zucchini and kale) and cut them into smaller slices
- Rinse quinoa well and bring it to boil in hot water (800ml)
- Add salt, broccoli, zucchini and ground nutmeg
- Cook for 10 minutes
- Add fresh herbs and some baby spinach leaves or kale
- Cook for another 5 minutes
- Add the almond cream and oatcream, stir it thoroughly
- Blend the soup with a mixer
Before serving, garnish the soup with some ground or sliced almonds and fresh herbs.
Hints
- If you are intolerant to almonds (or other nuts), try the tiger nuts instead.
- Both quinoa and buckwheat are very tasty with this soup. It thickens the soup very well and adds a good portion of proteins.
- You may even thicken the soup with some additional oatmeal and serve it as a sauce for pasta, rice or couscous.
Invite children to help you prepare the soup
- to wash and cut the vegetables
- to tear the green leaves into smaller pieces
- to rinse and peel the almonds (that improves their fine motor skills)
- to mix the fresh herbs and some salt in the mortar into a paste (to test how strong their muscles are)
- to be the chief cook who tells whether the soup needs an additional pinch of salt (if they prefer more salty tastes) or rather more almond and oat cream (if they prefer more sweet tastes).