Thick Vegetable Soup with Broccoli

Name: Thick Vegetable Soup with Broccoli and Bell Pepper
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: Italian cuisine
Ingredients: Sweet red bell pepper 1; Garlic 1-2 cloves; Broccoli 100 g; Carrot 1; Onion 1; Parsley 0.5 bunch; Green peas 100 g; Celery (root) 50 g; Salt, black pepper, dried herbs, bay leaf to taste

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45 mins

Usually, when we call a soup thick, it means one or more thickeners went into it: flour, egg, dough, or well-cooked grains.

Or, more often, the soup simply has far more solid ingredients than is usual. Thick soups are often made like a cream soup: all the ingredients are pushed through a fine sieve and then thinned with broth.

In the East I have seen ordinary soups, the ones we are used to (meat, fish, vegetable or bean soups), made thick by puréeing some of the vegetables and adding that purée to the broth where the rest of the ingredients are cooking.

A thick vegetable soup is rarely cooked for just 1-2 servings. First, it is very hard to “guess” the amounts of 10-15 ingredients for a small pot. Second, the vast majority of first courses taste much better after they have rested, so you can “leave” some for tomorrow.

The balance between liquid and “dry” matter in a soup is a matter of taste. In my opinion, a soup should be thick unless it is a broth. Also, a soup should barely simmer, not boil hard. This is essential. Any soup at a vigorous boil turns into porridge, and a vegetable soup turns into purée.

The simplest soup is a vegetable soup. Anyone can make it, even without any special training. In ads you often hear “just add water”. Here it is “just add vegetables and cook”. You can also make a more complex vegetable soup by adding other ingredients, for example a soup with seafood and vegetables.

Let’s make a simple vegetable soup from seasonal vegetables. Homemade rye bread goes great with it.

9 ingredientsTo the recipe

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Ingredients

2 servings

Sweet red bell pepper 1
Garlic 1-2 cloves
Broccoli 100 g
Carrot 1
Onion 1
Parsley 0.5 bunch
Green peas 100 g
Celery (root) 50 g
Salt, black pepper, dried herbs, bay leaf to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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If you can’t get fresh broccoli and green peas, use fresh-frozen ones and don’t thaw them first. The dish won’t suffer.
Peel the carrot, celery and onion and chop them coarsely. Peel the garlic and lightly crush it with the flat of a knife.
Bring 1.5 l of water to a boil and add the vegetables. Add 1-2 bay leaves, salt lightly, and add a pinch or two of dried aromatic herbs (basil, marjoram, savory, etc.).
Cook the vegetables for 20 minutes. Then remove the bay leaf and lift all the vegetables out of the broth with a slotted spoon. Strain the broth and put it back on the heat.
Add 0.5 tsp of sugar (2 g), the sliced bell pepper and the green peas to the broth. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. The sugar helps the peas and broccoli keep their bright color, and it makes the soup taste better too.
Meanwhile, the vegetables you took out of the broth will cool a little. Rub them through a sieve or purée them with a blender.
When the peas are done, add the broccoli to the broth and cook it for 4-5 minutes. Then immediately add the purée of the previously cooked vegetables.
Bring the broth to a boil and simmer on the lowest heat for 5-6 minutes.
Add finely chopped parsley and let the soup stand for a few minutes before serving.