Creamy Broccoli Dill Soup

This soup will forever be the first "real" meal my daughter ever ate. As in, the first time she ate the same thing we were eating for dinner (at six and a half months old). I've documented the recipe below exactly the way I made it when Hannah first ate it, to memorialize the occasion.

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Creamy Broccoli Dill Soup

Notes: I use water here, but if you have homemade chicken or vegetable stock around, by all means use it. Also, this soups works really well with a zucchini added in; the zucchini makes it extra creamy. You can easily scale this soup up, just make sure your water just covers your vegetables when you pour it in.

Special equipment:
Vitamix or other high-powered blender

Ahead of time:
1/2 cup cashews soaked in filtered water for 3 hours (if you have a high powered blender, like a Vitamix, you don’t need to pre-soak).

To make the soup:
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2-pound head of broccoli, leaves trimmed and tough stems removed, chopped
2 teaspoons dried dill weed
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
4 cups water or just enough to cover the broccoli
Sea salt to taste

To serve:
Smoked or regular paprika
Olive oil
Cooked quinoa or brown rice, if desired to make it more substantial
Homemade croutons (my kids love this).. Toast bread cubes with some olive oil and/or butter until crispy

Heat olive in a stock pot over medium heat. Add onion and sauté for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onion is fragrant and a bit translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for a couple minutes more, still stirring. Add the broccoli, dill weed and ground mustard and sauté for a minute or two more. Add the water, bring to a gentle boil, and simmer for about 10 minutes. You want the broccoli to be a bit tender (a little hardness in the stems is OK, particularly if you have a high-power blender) but still bright green.

Pour the soup into a blender, along with the cashews, and blend until smooth. Transfer back to the stock pot and salt to taste. I use about 2 teaspoons of sea salt if I start with water.

You can serve it straight as is, or drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with some smoked paprika and/or with a scoop of quinoa or some homemade croutons for a more substantial meal.

Enjoy!

Gluten-Free & Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are hands-down our favorite cookies. My kids’ friends request them when they come to play and they have sold out at numerous bake sales. You can make them as straight peanut butter (like the original recipe) or peanut butter chocolate chip.

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Gluten-Free & Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted only very slightly from these Peanut Butter Cookies by Alissa Segersten, one of my favorite gluten-free cooks.

Notes: I use sprouted brown rice and sprouted sorghum flours here. You can certainly use regular ones if that’s what you have. However, I think that sprouted flours are well worth the investment, particularly if you have celiac disease and/or you have some gut healing to do. Sprouted flours are more digestible and enable more nutrient absorption than their non-sprouted counterparts. Also, if your chia seeds are whole, you can grind them in a coffee grinder and store any leftovers in the fridge.

Recipe last updated 10/29/2021

Dry Ingredients:
180 grams brown rice flour OR sorghum flour OR a combination of the two
25 grams arrowroot OR tapioca starch (also called flour or powder)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup creamy, salted natural peanut butter (crunchy works fine as well)
3/4 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons ground chia seeds whisked with 1/4 cup hot water

Other Ingredients:
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips or chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and whisk well.

In another medium bowl, combine and stir the peanut butter, coconut sugar, applesauce, melted coconut oil and vanilla extract. Then, in a small bowl, use a fork to quickly whisk the ground chia seeds with hot water until mostly smooth and a little bit stringy, then incorporate the chia seed mixture into the wet ingredients until you don't see big clumps of chia seeds.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well.

Mix the chocolate chips into the dough and form cookies on an ungreased baking sheet (I find these cookies don't really change shape in the oven). Bake for 14-15 minutes until the bottoms are nicely browned, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 20-24 cookies

Hummus

This is classic hummus the way I usually make it.

For increased digestibility, I first soak my chickpeas for 24 hours and then cook them with a small piece of kombu seaweed and cumin seeds (this is the Whole Life Nutrition approach). The cumin seeds also impart flavor as some of them make it into the hummus. The seaweed adds minerals but doesn't impart any taste.

Also, your hummus will be the creamiest if you use your chickpeas as soon as you’ve cooked them. You can certainly store them in the fridge for a day or two if needed, but if possible make your hummus right away.

This recipe makes about 6 cups of hummus, which I divide into 3 2-cup Pyrex containers for the freezer.

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Hummus

Recipe updated 12/30/2019

Special equipment:
Food processor

To soak and cook the chickpeas:
1 1/3 cups dried chickpeas
Filtered water for soaking and more for cooking
2-3 inch strip of kombu seaweed
1 1/2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds

To make the hummus:
1 large garlic clove, chopped
Juice of 2 lemons, possibly more to taste
1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt
1/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup tahini
Cooked chickpeas (see above)
Bean cooking water (or filtered water) for consistency

Garnish:
Olive oil
Sumac or smoked paprika

Place the chickpeas in a pot and cover with about 2 inches of water. Leave them to soak uncovered for about 24 hours.

STOVETOP COOKING METHOD:
Drain and rinse the chickpeas, return them to the pot and add new water to cover the beans by at least an inch. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, skim off the white foam then reduce heat to low and add the kombu and cumin. Cover and cook for 1-1.5 hours. Bean cooking times can vary a lot. Start checking for doneness around the hour mark, but be prepared to cook for longer if needed.

PRESSURE COOKER METHOD:
Drain and rinse the chickpeas, place them in the pressure cooker and cover with at least an inch of filtered water. Add the kombu and cumin seeds to the pot and cook on high pressure for 12 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally.

When the chickpeas are done, discard the seaweed but keep the chickpeas and cumin seeds in the cooking water.

To make the hummus, place the chopped garlic, lemon juice and sea salt in your food processor and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Add the olive oil, tahini and chickpeas (you can either remove them with a slotted spoon or strain them, but if you do the latter be sure to preserve the cooking liquid). Some of the cumin seeds from the cooking water will inevitably make it into the hummus and that's OK; they add flavor. At this point, process what you have into a thick and chunky hummus, then start adding the cooking water (about 1/4 cup at a time) and continue to process until you have a smooth consistency. I usually add well over a cup of the chickpea cooking liquid as I like my hummus to have a pourable consistency. Keep in mind that it will thicken slightly over time as well. Also note that the longer you run the food processor the creamier the hummus will be; I often run it for several minutes for the smoothest possible hummus.

Makes about 6 cups of delicious, homemade hummus, perfect for a freezer stash.