Both the head and stem of broccoli are edible, but many people remove and throw away the stem’s hard, crunchy texture and slightly bitter taste.
These stalks make a great addition to your compost pile, but one mum on Instagram has found another way to use them: by making a delicious broccoli and blue cheese soup.
scoop
The recipe shared by user Eimear Hutchinson (@eimearhutchinson) is simple and uses only a few ingredients. All you need for this recipe is a few broccoli stalks, a block of blue cheese, an onion, as much garlic as you like, butter, a bouillon stock cube or two, and water.
“It couldn’t be easier, and you can always throw in some other vegetables you need to use up,” Hutchinson says.
Hutchinson says to start by sautéing onions and garlic in plenty of butter. Meanwhile, fill a pot with water, add 1 or 2 bouillon cubes and bring to a boil.
Next, cut the broccoli stalks into small cubes and add them to the boiling water along with the sautéed onions, garlic, and any other remaining vegetables you want to add to the soup.
Once all the vegetables are in the soup, Hutchinson recommends ladle out excess water until just barely covering the vegetables. Next, use a hand blender to blend the soup until it reaches your desired consistency. If the soup is too thick, she says you can add water to thin it out.
All you have to do now is add the blue cheese and once it’s melted, your soup is ready.
“Sprinkle a little pepper on top and enjoy!” Hutchinson said before sampling a spoonful for herself.
How does it help?
Following recipes like Hutchinson’s that use foods that are often thrown away is a great way to stretch your dollars. Plus, it cuts down on food waste.
Food waste is a big problem because it produces methane gas, which contributes to global warming. When thrown into landfills, food waste gets buried and loses access to oxygen, which is an essential element for the breakdown of food to create compost. Without oxygen, food will rot, producing methane gas as a by-product.
A study conducted by the Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment in 2022 found that about 38% of food in the United States is never sold or consumed, resulting in 88.7 tons of food waste being sent to landfills.
Most of that waste comes from our homes. According to Reuters, households dump more food waste into landfills than any other part of the production chain, accounting for 48% of all food waste.
Fortunately, reducing food waste at home is one of the easiest things you can do and can go a long way in cooling the planet. Properly storing food and utilizing the freezer, planning meals in advance, using recipes using food scraps, and composting are all great ways to reduce food waste at home. is.
For more tips, check out The Cool Down’s guide to keeping food fresh longer and using leftovers.
what everyone is saying
Instagram users loved Hutchinson’s broccoli and blue cheese soup recipe, offering plenty of praise and ideas.
One user commented on the recipe: “This is amazing…definitely saves.”
Another suggested another zero-waste recipe. “Slice broccoli stems into rounds to make a cheat water chestnut for stir-fry. Trust me, it works!!”
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