Broccoli Soup with Crostini and Gremolata

While flipping through one of my cookbooks the other day, I came across this really great sounding broccoli soup. Since I was in fact looking for a broccoli recipe because I seem to have more than I know what to do with again and the recipe called for spinach, which I also happened to have, I figured I had to give this one a try.

Start off by heating olive oil and butter in a large stock pot until heated, add a tablespoon of minced garlic and cook until just beginning to brown.  To this add half an onion, chopped, and 2 celery stalks also chopped.  Cook this over medium to medium low heat for about ten minutes, without letting it brown, until softened. Add 2 teaspoons fresh chopped thyme and 5 cups of chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, add one and a half pounds of broccoli florets, bring back to a boil and simmer for about another ten minutes, until the broccoli is very tender.  Add 4 cups loosely packed spinach and 2 teaspoons lemon zest, stir until all of the spinach is wilted.

At this point, you are supposed to add it to a blender in about 3 batches and combine until well pureed. I however do not have a blender any longer, so I had the pleasure of taking about 20 minutes to puree this in a tiny 1 cup food processor. By the time I was done, I decided that this better be one hell of a good soup to go to this much effort for and I won't be making it again until I get a new blender or maybe I will invest in one of those immersion blenders, which would be perfect for this.

Once completely pureed, add soup back to stock pot and warm over medium low until just warmed back through, stir in 1 cup of heavy cream.

I also followed the recommendation to serve this with crostini and gremolata, both of which were very easy to make. For the gremolata mix together 1 tablespoon roasted hazelnuts (finely chopped), 1 1/2 tablespoons bread crumbs, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, 1/8 teaspoon salt and 2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley.  I also added in about a tablespoon of finely grated parmesan cheese and stirred to combine.  For the crostini, I melted 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter in a large saute pan, added about 6 slices of french bread and toasted until brown, I added another tablespoon of butter to the pan and flipped the slices over to brown on the other side.

To serve this soup, I ladled into bowls and added a spoonful (or two) of the gremolata on top and served 2 (or 3 or 4) slices of crostini alongside.

Wow. Thank you Michael Chiarello for your amazing broccoli soup recipe. And thank you even more for making it worth the effort of going through the hassle to blend this all together.  I am definitely going to be making this again the next time I have too much broccoli on hand!  I think that the addition of the gremolata really brings the flavors of this soup together, so if you are planning on making this I highly recommend making that too.