By Pholosho Matondolo

I just love soup and during the winter season I could have a cup of soup every day.

Soup is a heartwarming dish, it can be served as a starter or as a main meal. During illness, heartaches or a get together with family or friends of any kind; soup is always satisfying.  In most families, it’s a traditional and important dish for countless occasions. My favourite ones are the healthy, nutritious ones – the ones that don’t take long to cook and are made with a lot of different kinds of vegetables. I personally prefer mostly hot soups.

One Wednesday evening, after a long day and a couple of hectic traveling days, I was home alone feeling very tired and hungry. I didn’t have many ingredients in my kitchen pantry or my refrigerator. I came across some broccoli florets and frozen peas in my refrigerator.  It was a chilly night and the only thing that I was craving was a cup of soup. So, I decided to make myself a broccoli and pea soup. It turned out to be a great choice (not that I had many choices in the first place!). I could have just blanched the vegetables and made a salad or something, but I loved this soup – it was so quick to prepare and all I needed was just 30 minutes for the soup to come together. For a little bit of heat and flavor I added black peppercorns,  so tasty! It was my first time trying it and I will definitely try it again.

Try it out, I hope you will like this Broccoli and Pea soup as much as I did.

Broccoli and Pea soup

Ingredients

200g broccoli florets

1 cup peas

1 tsp dried mixed herbs

¼ cup chopped onion

Salt Black peppercorns, for seasoning

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup Vegetable stock/ water

Instructions

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a saucepan. Fry onions until translucent, add the garlic, broccoli florets and the dried mixed herbs mixed herbs. Cover and stir occasionally for about 5 to 7 minutes.

Pour in the stock or water and bring to boil. Reduce the heat once it starts boiling, simmer covered for 20 minutes or until the broccoli is nice and tender. Turn off the heat, let the soup cool down for some time. Use a hand blender to puree the soup and make sure you leave a bit of texture. Then return soup to a clean saucepan, season with salt and black peppercorn and heat without letting it boil.

Serve it with warm bread slices, garnish the soup with some peas and crumbled feta cheese.

Enjoy!