Seasonal Ontario Food

Not having a television, I am generally about the last person to hear of the trend of the moment. Nevertheless, faint rumours of this soup finally reached me, and I went a-searching on the intertubes. This is what I found. And yes, actually, it's really very good. I made a few changes of course; I can't help myself. I'm not sure that it's necessarily The Ultimate Soup, but for something as simple, fast and easy as it is, it's quite impressive. It's one of those things that will become a regular feature on the menu roster.

My main change was to grind the nuts right into the soup as I am not a big fan of finding discrete pieces of nut in something else, even though I can sit and eat a bowl full of nuts down to the crumbs. I meant to use the walnuts Gordon suggests, but alas, I was out, so it was back to the hazelnuts, not that there was anything wrong with that. Next time.

2 servings
10 minutes - 5 minutes prep time

1 large head broccoli - florets only
water (about 2 cups to cook)
salt & pepper
2 tablespoons sliced hazelnuts or walnut pieces
extra virgin olive oil

1 ounce goat cheese, cheddar or other cheese of your choice

Wash the broccoli and cut the florets from the stem, which may be used for some other purpose, but is discarded so far as this soup goes. Cook the broccoli florets until just tender in boiling water. Five minutes should be about sufficient.

Lift the broccoli into a blender with a slotted spoon. Add the nuts, and enough of the broccoli cooking water to come half-way up the broccoli. In case anyone was wondering, for me that was a mere one cup. Do not put in too much water; you can always add more if your soup is too thick, but once it is too thin it is too thin and that's that. Purée the soup until very smooth in texture. Taste it, and adjust the water and seasonings as needed. I added my pepper at this point, although you can also just grind some over as you serve it.

Serve the soup garnished with the cheese, and more nuts if you like, and a little drizzle of olive oil.