Diet Cauliflower and Broccoli Soup Recipe (Pureed)

Name: Diet Cauliflower and Broccoli Soup Recipe (Pureed)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Cauliflower 500 g; Broccoli 250 g; Carrot 1; Potato 2; Onion 1; Salt spices; Other vegetables, red sweet pepper optional

A thick vegetable diet soup is a simple, healthy first course that you can make from most of the vegetables in your fridge. What's special about this soup is that its thickness puts it closer to a vegetable main dish than a soup. It's easy to make: the vegetables are simply boiled. Most of them can even be half-raw, since after pureeing they're simmered a bit longer until fully cooked.

Thick vegetable soups are often just called purees, meaning a soup of a special kind. The final stage of cooking involves blending or straining the vegetable mass, and you may come across the term “strained” soups. Such dishes aren't always vegetable-based. Meat, poultry, fish, and even mushrooms are pureed with success too.

Strained pureed soups contain much less liquid than ordinary ones. This makes them more filling, and because they're so finely blended, they're easier to digest. In dishes like this the flavors of vegetables and spices blend into a whole, so pureed soups have a pleasant aroma. And they look very appetizing.

I remember from childhood that strained vegetable soups were part of a diet. They're often recommended during illness. And people who care about a healthy lifestyle surely love them too. Sometimes soups are made from ground grains, or the grains are simply boiled down, which is how pea soup is cooked. Add cream or milk to the finished dish and you get a cream soup, a separate category of first courses.

As a rule, you use vegetables with similar cooking times: broccoli, cauliflower, green peas, and green beans. Firmer vegetables that take longer can be cooked together with the rest if you change the size of the cut.

You can always cut potatoes, carrots, or root vegetables small so that they cook in the same time as tender cabbage. This trick lets you boil all the vegetables at once. Even if the carrot or potato is slightly underdone, the soup keeps simmering for a while after the vegetables are pureed, which finishes the cooking. Salt the puree and add spices shortly before the end of cooking. If you use aromatic herbs, add them at the very beginning, in a sachet bag or tied in a piece of clean cloth.

More with potatoes

Vegetarian Borscht Without MeatTasty Ukrainian red borscht without meat: beets, carrot and onion braised with tomato, plus beans, potatoes and young cabbage. Ready in 45 minutes.

Winter Vegetable Soup RecipeLight, clear winter vegetable soup made from frozen peas, green beans and Brussels sprouts plus potatoes and carrots. Step-by-step recipe with photos.

Sorrel Soup with Spinach and RiceVegetarian sorrel soup on a vegetable broth: sorrel and spinach sautéed in butter with a splash of cream, a little rice and fresh herbs. Step-by-step photos.

Turkey and Cabbage SoupClear turkey and cabbage soup in a rich broth with potatoes, carrot, celery root, parsnip and Mediterranean herbs. A light, simple soup with step-by-step photos.

Dumpling SoupQuick, rich dumpling soup: homemade pelmeni cooked in vegetable broth thickened with mashed potato. Step-by-step recipe for breakfast or lunch.

Ingredients

4 servings

Cauliflower 500 g
Broccoli 250 g
Carrot 1
Potato 2
Onion 1
Salt spices
Other vegetables, red sweet pepper optional

Step-by-step recipe

Cook modeKeeps your screen from turning off while the recipe is open

Diet vegetable soup is a thick puree of vegetables boiled in water. The only seasoning added to the finished dish is salt, although many people prefer to skip it entirely. The taste of the dish comes from the vegetables themselves, so try to cook only with very fresh, high-quality produce.
The usual advice is to add vegetables to soup according to their cooking time. Potatoes and carrots take longer than onion and tender kinds of cabbage like cauliflower and broccoli. But I decided to do it a little differently. I cut all the vegetables into pieces of different sizes. The cabbage florets are big, and they cook to al dente in 8-10 mins at a gentle simmer. The potatoes and carrots I also cut into big pieces, but thin ones. That way they cook almost through in roughly the same time. Peel the onion and drop it in whole.
Besides, even if the firm vegetables are slightly underdone, they'll keep cooking for a while after being pureed, which brings them to full doneness. Put all the vegetables in a large pot and add 5-6 cups of water. Put the pot on the heat. A diet soup of mixed vegetables consists almost entirely of pureed vegetable mass with a relatively small amount of water. Even if the chopped vegetables are piled high in the pot, they'll settle as they heat.
Bring the water to a boil and reduce the heat so that it simmers gently. Cover the vegetables with a lid. Don't add salt or any spices. Cook the vegetables for 10 mins, which is enough. Next, and this is important, pour all the liquid, the vegetable broth, into a separate container. You'll need the broth to thin the diet soup to the consistency you want.
In old cookbooks, boiled vegetables were pushed through a sieve. That's an exotic process, but a rather tiresome one. A kitchen blender handles vegetable puree beautifully, and it's an indispensable appliance in any household. Blend all the vegetables thoroughly into a smooth puree with no visible pieces. If needed, you can add some vegetable broth while blending.
Pour the vegetable puree back into the pot and thin it with broth to the thickness you like. If you wish, salt the soup to taste. Put the pot on the heat and bring the puree just to a boil. Cook the soup on low heat under a lid for 4-5 mins. This finishes cooking the firm vegetables. Although, to be honest, you can't make them out in the mass at all.
Ladle the finished soup into bowls or large cups. If you like, sprinkle a pinch of coarsely ground sweet paprika on top, which is delicious. Add more salt if you think it needs it. Serve the soup hot or warm, however you like.
If you use other vegetables, take into account their cooking time and whether they have a skin. For example, green peas that are a little overripe can leave noticeable bits of skin in the vegetable mass. And the outer skin of sweet pepper blends poorly, so it's better to roast and peel the pepper before cooking.