Thursday 19 March 2015

CSA Winter Box 1: Broccoflower and Kale Soup

Hi... I'm back!  And I'm going to try and catch up with my many many MANY blog posts that are way overdue since last November when well, let's face it - our baby girl was way more fun that writing blog posts! ... And of course she still is - but right now I have a 30 minutes window if I'm lucky so here goes!

*Quick check of the monitor screen ... and we're safe ... write... quickly! *

November was the first month that we picked up our CSA box for the Winter sign up we had bought from Coopers Farm, just a few minutes drive from our house.  Ever since we moved house in the Summer, out of Toronto - we knew we wanted to do this.  CSA ~ Community Supported Agriculture is the greatest thing - fresh vegetables and fruit right from the farm every month (or more - we'll be doing weekly in the Summer!) and in paying for the box upfront you are supporting the farm and helping it to grow and produce these very same vegetables!  Check out the Coopers Farm website here and read more about it. 


Box number one was picked up at the beginning of November, so it was the most colourful box we've had, still with some of the Summer greenhouse fruits and veg still available.  I'll write a few blog posts about everything we did with the box, but the first thing I have to talk about is the Romanesco Broccoli - broccoflower!  The COOLEST vegetable I've ever seen! 

A couple of friends were coming over for dinner and to meet baby girl so we made a Romanesco Broccoli and Kale Soup with Cheddar Cheese from the FruitGuys website - and it was DELICIOUS!  I never thought I'd be saying that about a soup made entirely of greens!  Give it a try, it was really good!


Ingredients:
1 head of Romanesco broccoli, chopped into bite-size pieces
1 bunch of kale, rinsed, stems removed and coarsely chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp dried tarragon
6 1/2 cups vegetable or chicken broth (we used vegetable as one friend is a vegetarian!)
1 cup heavy cream
3 tbsp all purpose flour
2 cups (packed) grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese

Method:

1.  Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy medium pot over medium-high heat.
 2.  Add onion and sauté until onion is translucent, about 6 minutes.
3.  Add garlic and tarragon; sauté 1 minute.
4.  Add chopped broccoli and kale; sauté for 5 minutes until kale starts to wilt.
5.  Add stock and bring to boil then simmer, uncovered for about 5 minutes.
6.  Stir in cream.
9.  Mix remaining 2 tablespoons butter with flour in small bowl to make paste, and whisk into soup.

10.  Simmer until soup thickens and broccoli is tender, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes.
11.  Blend together to make a soup without any chunks if preferred!
12.  Season with salt and pepper.

13.  Serve while hot, with grated cheddar cheese.

 
If you're a greens skeptic do give this a try!  I never thought I'd be eating a soup made from kale and broccoli (although admittedly the cream and cheese does help!!). 
 
Thanks to Fruit Guys for the inspiration and recipe and to baby girl for taking a 40 minute nap! :-)

1 comment:

  1. Oh this looks wonderful. Wish I had a hot bowlfull right now! Pinning it. Hey, lovely lady, have you shared this at my Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop on Ducks' n a Row yet? Wish you would :)
    Sinea

    ReplyDelete

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