I am student at Hawthorn University in Nutrition Consultation.  My assignment sometimes includes preparing, eating and critiquing a recipe.  Included in this 3 credit hour course is a recipe by The Inner Cook – Rebecca Katz's, Emerald City Soup.  I adapted it for my small family size by cutting the ingredients in half as I have it listed here.  I also added a can of Coconut Milk which really made it outstanding. For crunch, I added corn tortillas.  (I use Green Mountain Gringo organic).   I am excited to share it with you:

Emerald City Soup

(Use organic ingredients if possible.)

1    Bunch Broccoli, washed and cut into pieces
2    Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1    Small Onion, chopped
1    Clove Garlic, minced 
1/4 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
      Kale, cut into pieces (I used about 4 leaves)
4   Cups Broth (Vegetable, Chicken or Beef)* see note below
1   Tablespoon Lemon Juice
     Sea Salt to taste
1   Can Coconut Milk (unsweetened and not the Lite version)

Blanch broccoli in hot water for 30 seconds.  Drain in colander and immediately immerse in a bowl of ice water to retain its bright color.

Heat olive oil in skillet on medium and saute’ onion with a pinch of salt until translucent.  Add the minced garlic and red pepper flakes and saute’ for 30 seconds more.  Add the chopped kale with another pinch of salt and cook one minute until the kale turns bring green.  Immediately remove from heat.

In a blender, blend half of the broccoli, Broth, and Kale mixture until smooth.  When the color changes from pale green to vivid emerald, that’s your cue to turn off the blender.  Pour into a pot, and blend the second half, adding it to the pot as well. 

Add the lemon juice, salt and can of coconut milk.  

Stir and heat the soup very slowly over low heat.  If not salty enough, salt to taste.  Serve immediately in colorful bowls or soup mugs and top with tortillas and extra red pepper flakes if desired.

If it needs to made in advance, heat it slowly, or it will lose its emerald green color and turn muddy.

Serves 3

Emerald City Soup does not freeze well, as it will not retain its vibrant green color.  The soup can, however, be kept for 1 or 2 days in the refrigerator.

Note about Broth:  Homemade broth is much better than buying store bought broth that is loaded with neurotoxic MSG. Bone broth contains many minerals the body can use.  Simply put a chicken in a crock pot.  Debone the chicken when done, and place the bones back in the crockpot with the broth, adding more water and a Tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar (this will help dissolve the minerals in the bone.  Slowly cook for a day or two until bones are soft and crumbly (the bones will be soft enough for the family pet to enjoy).  Strain and store in jars or containers and freeze for use in recipes such as Emerald City Soup.  Once cooled in jars, the fat will collect at the top.  This can be removed once chilled in the refrigerator.  

Today I made a fantabulous creamy vegetable beef soup!  I know, it's not quite time for soup yet here in the south since it was 95 degrees today.  But inside the AC made it cool enough to enjoy and I do miss my soups in the summertime.  Notice that this soup does look a little creamy, opaque and not translucent.  That is due to a wonderful creamy goodness that we just do not get enough off.  Adding this made the soup taste so rich and savory!   So keep reading and I'll share the secret.  This soup passed the husband taste test so it was a hit.  We really loved it so this recipe is a keeper.

I bought a 3 pound rump roast from the Auburn Food Buying Club.  The roast is from purely organic grassfed beef.  Grassfed meats can tend to be on the tough side sometime due to the lack of fat but grassfed meats are the healthier choice.  I put the roast with a little water and lemon pepper sprinkled on top in the crock pot and cooked for 12 hours on low.  This is the best way to get a tender roast.  I took the roast out and let it cool a while then cut it up into bite size pieces.  There wasn't much fat but if you are using a roast from grain fed beef you might have a lot more fat and may want to take some of it off so your soup won't have too much fat floating on the top.

Here are tomatos from my garden.  I dropped them in boiling water for a few seconds so the skin would be an easy off and then I just hand cut them into pieces.  I had 2 quarts.  You can use frozen or canned tomatoes if you'd like.  Yesterday I realized we would not be able to eat all of the tomatoes before they went bad so I just prepared them and put them in the refrigerator last night and thought I'd just bag and freeze them today but I was trying to think of another way to use them and I had put a roast on too last night.  So today is where the two have merged and thus my posting about my creamy vegetable beef soup.
This 2 quart batter bowl of tomatoes was the first to go into an 12 quart stock pot.

     Next into the 12 quart stock pot went 4 quarts of filtered water,

A very large diced onion,

3 Tablespoons organic dried parsley,
1 Tablespoon organic dried Italian Seasoning
1 Tablespoon organic season salt
2 teaspoon organic ground pepper
2 teaspoons organic garlic powder
1 teaspoon organic celery seed
3 organic bay leaves

Here are the tomatoes, onion, water and all the seasonings in the stock pot.

Next add 3 medium sized diced organic potatoes,

2 sliced organic carrots,

2 cups okra.  These are some from my garden that I had previously battered with sprouted corn from "To Your Health Sprouted Flour Company" and fried in expeller pressed coconut oil and frozen.  You can use sliced raw okra just as well.  If you have no okra, that's OK too, just omit.  You can add lima beans, peas or celery instead.

One bag of organic green beans, and

one package of frozen corn kernels.  (These were from my garden but you can use frozen organic corn kernels too.

So you see that you can add most any vegetable that you would like.  Finally you will need to add the roast with it's juice and all to the stock pot.  Turn up the heat on your stove top and bring to a slow boil for about 30 minutes or until vegetables are done to your liking.