Cream of Broccoli Soup - non dairy, no wheat.

It's Sunday, therefore I must be making soup.

Today, it's a stab at Cream of Broccoli Soup.
Possibly St. Patrick's Soup.

Broccoli florets were on sale at my Thriftway for .68 cents/lb so I bought two plastic bags worth.
Then they sat in my fridge - umm, seven days. I'm sure that was to age them/ripen them.

A quick look online confirmed that thyme would go well as well  as a dash of allspice.

My recent food allergy panel showed that I am now allergic/intolerant of foods that were fine before.
Like carrots and green beans and almonds.
So soup has become stock, meat & celery. Not fun and totally boring.
I  tried that cream of celery soup with the cashew cream recently and had an iffy reaction. I tried celery root again in a plain chicken soup and again, an iffy reaction.
Undecided if it was too much of the cashews or the celery root or....I wish I could say it gives me a headache but by avoiding certain foods, I've taken care of that daily reaction.

Back to soup thinking:

I steamed my broccoli in 2 cups of chicken stock until nearly falling apart.
I added some thyme - couple of pinches and some allspice (v.1996). Next,  some salt and I was going to grind some pepper into the soup when my hand reached for another recent acquisition. An Italian Herb grinder containing rosemary, pepper, garlic, onion, sea salt and parsley.
I like these grinders as it is more difficult to add unwanted ingredients - like flour to the spices to keep them from clumping.

Then I used my new discovery of coconut milk to help puree it in my blender. I probably used about 2 cups of the coconut milk.
I tolerate an ice cream made with coconut milk and while it has a slight aftertaste of coconut, the soup doesn't seem to impart it. Maybe because the broccoli overwhelms you?

I didn't use a lot of liquid cooking my broccoli, but even though I did add a couple of cups of the coconut milk, the soup came out thick. I wouldn't say creamy, but smooth.

It tastes good, but when I serve it, I'm going to add a pinch of romano to the top - to garnish the soup, mind you.

A few minutes later I added this: good soup.
We are having hamburgers for dinner, so I dished up more soup and cut up my hamburger into chunks and added that to the soup. mmm...mmm...good

Maybe a little TMI.

Another idea? I think I will make this again next week but I will roast the broccoli first.

Dairy-free Cream of Broccoli Soup

Or, was it?

I read about five recipes on-line for Cream of Broccoli Soup and came up with something that is very definitely green but tastes very good.

I took zero photos because the soup was GREEN. I don't think my kids would eat a green soup  if I paid them, but one on-line mom swore her kid loved cream of broccoli soup. Even Gluten-free Girl swears her daughter loves broccoli puree. I don't think you should believe everything you read on-line.

I started off with sautéing some dried minced onions in butter with a dash or two of garlic powder. Then I added 3 cups of homemade turkey stock along with the broccoli, chopped up small.

After seven minutes, I threw in the last cup of broth, realizing I had a lot of broccoli in the pot.
I added some sea salt  (~Tbsp?) and pepper and pinch of Turmeric at this point.

The broccoli took just over ten minutes to get somewhat soft. Tasting it here, I added a dash of hot sauce because we all know hot sauce fixes everything.
I pureed the soup in three batches in my blender and put it back in the cookpot.
Then I added 2 cups of Hazelnut milk (Dairy-free). I had about 2 Tbsp's of whipping cream left in the fridge and threw that in.

The soup was still not quite what I was after. A little too much texture. Not enough creaminess.

I added another cup of Hazelnut milk to get the right consistency and put two batches back through the blender ( not all of the soup - I wanted to keep some of the texture).
That little whipping air into the milk gave it a more velvety texture.

This was a fast-to-make soup, but, unfortunately, is for an intermediate cook who kinda has an idea in her peabrain about what this soup should be like; taste-wise and texture-wise and how to get there.

Here's my recipe - with room for thought:

Dairy-Free Cream of Broccoli Soup

1/4 cup finely chopped onions or 2 Tbsp. Dried Minced Onions
Butter ~ 2 Tbsp ( you could use olive oil here)
Garlic Powder or 1 clove fresh garlic
2 big florets of Broccoli, chopped up
4 cups stock (mine was from the Thanksgiving Turkey)

3 cups of dairy-free milk (Hazelnut)
Dash of real cream?

Definite Dash of Hot Sauce

Sauté the onion and garlic in butter. A minute or two.
Add stock and broccoli. Cook until almost tender ~ 10 minutes.
Puree in batches in blender. Return to cookpot.
Add dairy-free milk
Puree two batches in blender (not all of soup).

Reheat.

This was enough for two tonight with just enough for tomorrow.