Raw Broccoli Soup

Even though I have a mixed relationship with raw broccoli, I’m still trying raw broccoli recipes I like and that won’t upset my insides, which usually means it needs to be pureed or pulverized in a food processor. I was glad to hear I’m not an odd duck in my dislike of raw broccoli, Cherie Soria of Living Light mentioned she wasn’t a fan of it raw either at the Raw Health Expo. But I like to balance raw and lightly steamed broccoli into my diet and lots of both for the wonderful health benefits. Tonight I tried a new-to-me raw broccoli soup recipe, Alissa Cohen’s Broccoli Soup. Of course I used hemp seeds in place of the cashews and two dates in place of the honey. :-)

I selected it because of all the good reviews and the addition of avocado and nuts/seeds for an extra thick, creamy, and hearty texture.

Pureeing broccoli into soups and sauces is great for me because I can toss in the stems too which is probably my favorite part of broccoli and easy to eat after steaming, but a little hard to gnaw on raw.

I always make such a mess of the Vita-Mix when I really get into a food prep groove, good thing it’s easy to clean!

The color of the soup was gorgeous, almost like a key lime pie filling.

I garnished the soup with chopped tomatoes mainly for a pretty color contrast. :-)

The texture of the soup looked a little odd, but it was thick and very hearty.

Hubby even tried a bowl and mostly liked it. Normally he’s not a fan of the airy, whipped texture of raw soups.

As for the soup, it was good – slightly sweet with a garlic bite and probably the smoothest texture of all the raw broccoli soups I’ve tried. A minor complaint was that it was almost too garlicy. I added a large clove thinking that would be fine for 4-servings, but it was a strong clove apparently. Next time I’ll add a smaller one.

Now to fully gross you out – meet my backyard composter.

It’s a Suncast Tumbling Composter that is working much better than the big bin composter we used to have that had to be manually stirred and occasionally watered. I just need to flip this one a couple of times a week – simple! Trust me, I dump a lot of compost into it every week, sometimes multiple huge bowls worth in a day if I’m making large salads, chopping watermelon, etc. And it composts it down quickly, it’s never been more than half full.

And there are tons, and I mean tons, of worms inside. When opened, the inside sounds like a bowl of crisp rice cereal from all of them moving around – awesomely gross stuff. :-)

Tossing seeds into the compost should be okay, but I found out the hard way that pumpkin and spaghetti squash seeds survived a season in our last composter and now I have a garden bed full of pie pumpkins and squash from adding the compost to it. But that’s all good!