This delicious green soup is an indispensable part of my menu and I finally manage to put it on my blog for you – whoop, whoop! This is a real “soulfood soup” that I prepare myself almost every week. Not only is it incredibly healthy and packed with protein, vitamins and valuable fibre, it is also prepared in no time and simply tastes super good. It consists of broccoli, zucchini, celery, lots of spinach and a creamy avocado. With a few yeast flakes, lemon juice and a little bit of gluten free Tamari soy sauce, the ingredients become a real treat for the soul! When I’m just dropping out of the gym and I’m really hungry, I sometimes fry a small tofu block cut into cubes and add the fried tofu pieces on top or fold them under. Should you also feel like making tofu as an additional “soup topping”, simply press dry a 200g tofu block, cut it into cubes and fry it in a wok or in a pan with 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp mirin and some salt. That’s all you need. Oil is not necessary. As you will see in the recipe, I also use very little liquid and let the ingredients steam rather than cook the veggies. In this way as many nutrients as possible are preserved.The soup normally serves 4, but if you are very hungry and want to eat the soup as a main course (and in case you are a “good eater”) it is enough for 2 portions. Enjoy and I hope you’ll love it as much as I do. I would love to hear from you on this recipe and so I look forward to your feedback, either here in the comments or on instagram. All the best, Lea.
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 500 – 530g (17.6 oz) broccoli
- 2-3 celery sticks (approx. 4.2 oz)
- 150 g (5.2 oz) zucchini
- 120 g (4.2 oz) baby spinach
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 ripe avocado
- A handful fresh mint leaves (or parsley)
- 3 heaped tbsp yeast flakes
- 1-2 tbsp gluten free Tamari soy sauce
- Sea salt and black pepper to your taste
- 100 ml (1/2 cup) plant based milk (or water) for adjusting the soup’s consistency
- 4 tbsp soy yoghurt for garnish
- Optional: Sprouts to your liking
For the pine nuts parmesan (optional)
- 25 g (0.8 oz) pine nuts
- 1 tbsp yeast flakes
- Sea salt
Tip: With this soup you don’t need to be too precise with the quantity of each ingredient. Instead you can e.g. substitute celery with more spinach or broccoli or you can add more spinach or zucchini as indicated. You just should stick with overall quantity of ingredients but you can play around with the proportions of the different greens and can adjust it to your favorite taste.
Instructions (25 minutes)
- Wash broccoli, celery sticks and zucchini and cut them into pieces. Wash baby spinach.
- Bringt 400 ml (1.6 cups) water to a boil and add all broccoli, the cut celery and zucchini. Boil for 12-14 minutes with the lid closed so that the veggies steam more than they cook. Then add 70 g (2/3 of it) of baby spinach, 2 tbsp of lemon juice under and let it cook for another 3-4 minutes. Tip: I use quite a big pot for cooking the greens as I want to avoid to use much water and the veggies steam easier if they are not stapled too much. I also cook the green with the lid closed so that the hot steam does most of the work. This saves the nutrients in your veggies.
- Take the pot from the stove and take out some of the steamed broccoli (we will put them back after blending the soup, but of course you can blend the entire soup. I personally prefer some veggie chunks left in the soup instead of preparing it completely smooth)
- Halve an avocado, remove the stone and put the avocado flesh into the soup. Add 3 tbsp of yeast flakes, 1 tbsp soy sauce, a handful of fresh mint leaves, a dash of salt and some black pepper and blend the soup with a (hand) blender.
- Adjust the soup’s consistency to your liking using plant based milk or water (I used about 100 ml (0.4 cup) plantbased milk).
- Heat the pureed soup, add rest of baby spinach (approx. 50 g/1.7 oz) and let collapse. Add rest of broccoli chunks (we removed before) and season the soup to your tadte using soy sauce and lemon juice.
- Optional for the pine nuts parmesan: Roast pine nuts without any further oil in a pan till golden brown and crush them with 1 tbsp of yeast flakes and a pinch of sea salt in a mortar.
- Serve the soup warm, garnished with soy yoghurt, mint leaves and sprouts. Drizzle with pine nut parmesan and enjoy!
