In the cooler months there is nothing better to warm cold bodies than a nutritious soup before the main meal or for lunch. I’ve also found that a healthy soup before the main meal tends to fill us up more thus we don’t eat quite as much, which is a positive. This dish is a favourite in our home. It is high in Vitamin C and even those that don’t like broccoli will love it.
Broccoli & Lemon Soup
Yield: 8 x1 cup serves
Time: 20 min
- 5 cups water (1250ml)
- 4 chicken stock cubes, although I use whatever I have on hand- vegetable stock powder usually.
- 600 grams chopped broccoli (stalks and all)
- 1 large coarsely chopped onion
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2tsp fresh or 1/2 tsp dried sweet basil
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- grated rind of half a lemon
Method
Bring water and stock cubes/powder to the boil in a large saucepan. Add broccoli, onion, garlic, sweet basil and pepper.
Return to the boil and simmer for 10 min.
When cool enough, puree in blender (or stick blender) and adjust the liquid until it equals 8 cups.
Reheat and add lemon juice and grated rind.
Serve with a slice of lemon on top.
Nutritional Information Per 1 Cup Serve
Calories: 45
Protein: 2g
Fat: 1g
Carb: 7g
Fibre: 3g
ooooh, I’m definitly trying this.
I’m trying to lessen the carbs in my families diet, do you have many low-carb or carb-free recepies? I mean, it’s easy not to serve the carbs, but who wants to eat a bowl of pasta sauce without the pasta, and it’s hard to adjust to eating curry without rice.
Hi Abba12, Oh it’s so hard to limit carbs, isn’t it? We were a HUGE carbs family because carbs are cheap and they fill hungry little bellies. Carbs used to form the largest portion of our servings but that is changing as over the years, we’ve noticed that white flour products just don’t agree with our bodies so we’ve been trying to limit them.
Our focus is now to make the veggies the largest portion on the plate, protein the next largest and the carbs the smallest portion. Equivalent to a small fist sized of carbs or what I could grab with my hand. Imagine grabbing a handful of pasta- that is what I allow for each person now. We all need some carbohydrates for fuel but we don’t need to overdose on it. 🙂
Learning more about raw foods has been helpful for me in this transition. Not that we are raw or likely ever will be… but incorporating more raw foods into our diet has also meant that we are satiated by good foods and don’t feel the needs for as many carbs.
Have you looked at any gluten free websites or blogs? They often have some good ideas.