First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I wish you all a happy, healthy and successful new year! It’s a new year, a new start so I’m kicking off this new beginning with a healthy soup recipe – Roasted Broccoli Soup with Cheddar Croutons. Before you come for me and say cheddar is not healthy – everything is healthy if we consume it in moderation! Otherwise, you can omit the cheddar and this dish will be completely diary free.

There are 3 main components to this dish: The roasted garlic, soup and croutons.

1. The roasted garlic: roasting your garlic low and slow brings out the sweetness of the garlic while mellowing out all sharp flavours.
2. Soup: the main vegetable in this soup is going to be the broccoli but you can also use broccolini if that is what you have on hand. We will also be using potato for its creaminess (this soup is heavy cream free), and onion to add extra sweetness to the soup.
3. Croutons: get yourself a baguette, slice it up and into the broiler with grated cheddar. It goes amazing with the soup. Sourdough or any other crusty bread is good too.

Ingredients

Soup:

3-4 broccoli heads, chopped into smaller pieces
1 large onion, chopped
1 garlic bulb, top removed
1 leek, halved then chopped
1 potato, peeled and cubed
3-4 cups vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
chilli flakes

Cheddar Croutons:

1 baguette, sliced
1 block cheddar cheese

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
2. In a baking dish/tray, throw in your broccoli, onion, garlic, chilli flakes, salt, pepper and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Bake for around 1 hour or until the veggies are soft and slightly browned. Reserve a few broccoli pieces for garnish.
3. In a pot, melt 2 tbsp of butter and throw in the leeks. Sweat the leeks until they are soft and translucent.
4. Add into the pot the potato, roasted veggies, squeeze in the roasted garlic and stock. Cover and bring to a boil. Continue cooking until the potato cubes are fork-tender.
5. Meanwhile, prepare the croutons, Line the bread slices into a single layer on a lined baking tray and grate over with cheddar. Put it until the broil for roughly 5-10 minutes or until the croutons are golden.
6. Once all the veggies are cooked, blend up the soup until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with cheddar croutons.