A quick and easy soup with minimal ingredients to get you fed and nourished fast. Broccoli is a powerhouse of a vegetable and once you realise just how healthful this little green lookalike tree is, you will find more ways to bring it into your life – through soups, it’s great in juices or just eating it raw in salads.

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves fresh garlic, crushed
• 2 good big heads of broccoli, about 900g, rinsed and chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground thyme
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1.5lt of organic vegetable stock, depending on how thick you want the soup
• Fresh chopped parsley, chives or dill

Method

1. In a large pot, add some water and sauté the onion and garlic till the onion is soft and translucent.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to the boil.
3. Cover, reduce heat and simmer till the broccoli is tender about 40 minutes.
4. Check seasoning. Puree the soup and garnish with fresh parsley, chives or dill.

This is a cracking great value one pot wonder that will feed the whole family (serves 6). Most likely you will already have most of these ingredients in your pantry as they are common place vegetables and spices. It’s a highly nourishing dish that will fill you up, not fill you out. You could serve this with cous-cous, 2 minute Uncle Ben’s brown rice or toasted wholemeal pitta pockets.

Total time required: About 40 minutes

Top Tip: Make 2 loads and freeze some to save on the cooking during the week!

Ingredients (serves 6)

• Vegetables
  • 1 aubergine (optional)
  • 1 red onion
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 2 peppers – pick your favourite colours
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
  • 1 400g of chickpeas
• Spices, herbs & seasoning
  • 5 tbsp soy sauce
  • 7 tbsp water
  • 1 tsp paprika (smoked or normal)
  • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • pinch of cayenne pepper or chilli pepper
  • a handful of flat leaf parsley or coriander
• Other
  • 1 tbsp honey or maple syrup
  • lime wedges to serve

Method

Prep

1. Chop the aubergine into small bite-size pieces.
2. Peel and finely chop the garlic and the onion.
3. Deseed and chop the peppers.
4. Finely slice the carrots.
5. Mix the water with the soy sauce.
6. Gather all the spices (except the paprika) in their required amounts onto a small plate

Cook

1. Put the water mix into a large pot and add the aubergine, garlic, onion and 1 tsp of paprika. Cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring regularly, until the aubergines have softened up.
2. Add the peppers, carrots and all the spices to the pot. Stir everything well and cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Drain and rinse the chickpeas and add to the pot along with the 2 tins of chopped tomatoes and mix well.
4. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and cook for a further 15 or 20 minutes, until the carrots are cooked through.
5. Chop the fresh coriander or parsley and garnish each serving with these.
6. Optionally add some avocado slices for some healthy fats to fill you up even more.