BLUE-GREEN SOUP WITH BLUE CHEESE AND GREEN VEGGIES

 
 
 
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Tonnes of green veg made sumptuous with some blue cheese… Blue cheese is Kapha all over — heavy, oily and gooey in quality and difficult to digest, but its pungent saltiness is also quite Pitta, which helps warm things up a bit. This is my way to enjoy a bit of that blue cheese unctuous tang in Kapha Season. Combine it with loads of Vata green veggies to balance it out, add some mustard seed to help digest and boost the Pitta and cook it all up into a soup where everything digests better! If you’re having a Pitta day, swap equal amounts of coriander for the parsley or add a sprig of cooling mint and reduce the black pepper. Soup is of course the perfect place to use up ALL the veg, so make sure you use the broccoli stalks that sometimes get overlooked. Don’t have enough broccoli? Chuck in some cabbage, lettuce, peas or cauliflower to make up the weight.

 

INGREDIENTS

Serves 2-3

300g broccoli including stalk, chopped
2 sticks celery, sliced
40g parsley including stalks, with stalks finely sliced, leaves rough chopped
Half a leek ( I used the green end)
30g blue cheese, e.g. Stilton
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp bouillon (veg stock powder)
3 cups water
1 tbsp ghee or your favourite cooking oil
Freshly ground black pepper to finish

METHOD

  1. Start by heating the ghee in a heavy-bottomed pot and sautéing the mustard seeds for 30 seconds. Add the celery and sauté for a few minutes until it starts to soften, then add the leek. Continue to sauté on a medium heat while you prepare the broccoli.

  2. Chop the stalk of the broccoli into small chunks, add to the pot. Chop the flowery broccoli heads into bigger chunks and add to the pot with 3 cups of water and the bouillon.

  3. Bring to a gentle boil and then simmer, lid on, for 14 minutes.

  4. Meanwhile, finely chop the parsley stalks and add to the pot.

  5. After the 15-minute cooking time, add the parsley leaves and crumble in the blue cheese. Stir and simmer for a minute or two more, then use a stick blender to pulse to your liking. I tend to plunge and pulse the blender so that the big bits of broccoli become smooth but there’s still texture. Otherwise transfer to a food processor/smoothie blender to blend, then transfer back to the pan to give it another heat-through if it’s cooled off a bit.

  6. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve with a good grind of black pepper and any of the teeny tiny broccoli flowers that might still be on your chopping board.

 
SPRING, SMALL PLATES, LUNCH, DINNER, VEGETARIANJasmine Hemsley