Broad beans seem to grow really well in our Scottish climate and they create the most delicious creamy recipes like dips, sauces or spreads. They always make such a delicious creamy spread or dip but I love to use them in a soup too as they create such a creamy base. This soup is creamy but without the addition of extra cream and the kids love it with a sprinkle of sharp cheddar grated cheese. Its a great way to get the green stuff into the little ones!

I removed the broad beans from the main pod but didn’t remove the skins from the beans for this recipe. If I was making a creamy sauce, dip or a spread I would have removed each individual skin but because I was blending this recipe I didnt bother. This saved me loads of time making this recipe because they can be fiddly and take a bit of time to prepare usually. If you have time on your hands feel free to peel the skin off of the beans it can make things a little smoother when making dips or sauces.

We love topping off our soup with a variety of healthy delicious toppings. Some of our family favourites for topping off vegetable based soups are below.

Delicious Soup Topping Ideas

1. Crispy croutons made from stale bread, fried in olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. I love to keep a bag of stale bread in the cupboard for breadcrumbs and croutons.
2. A drizzle of high quality organic olive oil or other oils of choice, avocado also works well.
3. A drizzle of fresh cream or kefir milk. We love a drizzle of thick double cream or kefir coconut milk works really well too.
4. A handful of grated cheddar – this always works really well with the kids they love cheese and I find its a good way to get the green stuff down.
5. Hemp seed hearts – I mentioned these in my recent podcast (‘Whats in my larder cupboard?’) they are one of my favourite superfoods and are packed with healthy nutritious fats.
6. Toasted seeds – you can use sunflower, pumpkin seeds and even seasame seeds, they work really well on oriental style soups. I sometimes even sprinkle some flax over the top.
7. Finely chopped leftover meats like shredded chicken, beef or lamb. This is a delicious way to give soup recipes an extra protein boost and makes for a hearty meal also. The leftover meat from a chicken dinner works really well and then you also get the stock from the leftover chicken bones.

We always have a chunk of bread to dip into our warm soup bowls and the fluffy crusty bread rolls on this website are delicious! You can find the recipe here or pin the recipe below from pinterest for later use.

If you are on pinterest pop over and say hello!

Stale bread also works really well for soup dunking! I like to rip it up into smaller pieces and leave it to soak in the soup. This is also how I serve up my soup to my toddler because she gets so bored of eating off of a spoon but I manage to get her to eat more soup by giving her soup soaked pieces of bread. She loves it and so do the big kids lol!

You can use frozen instead of fresh!

If you don’t have fresh broad beans growing in the garden or can’t find them in your local supermarket don’t worry! You can also buy broad beans from the freezer section of the supermarket and use those instead. Its also great to have a stash of these in the freezer for a quick spread or dip as htey do work really well for those types of recipes.

Spice it up

You can spice up this soup by using different seasonings before the stock is added. I like to sometimes use some dried chilli flakes or if I am particularly craving a spicy hit I will add on some chopped chillies to the top of my soup when serving. Cumin works well in this recipe and I have added that in below but feel free to be experimental. Mexican spice blends might also work really well in this broad bean soup.

Can I freeze this soup?

Absolutely! If you have a tonne of broad beans to use up or just want to create a huge batch of soup to stock up the freezer then go ahead and make double or even triple this recipe to create easy meals to pull out of the freezer. I quite often make large batches of soup to fill the freezer and it works so well when you need to pull out a quick lunch or starter for dinner for the family. Some other soups that work really well for freezing are – cullen skink , cock a leekie , scotch broth and other vegetable or meat based soups.

Some other soups from The Wee Larder blog are featured below. My favourite is chicken broth and I plan to include that in a video soon!

You will love this recipe because…

Broad beans make the most delicious creamy soup base without the addition of cream. This creates a lower calorie soup that is still creamy and blends well. Its a great waste watcher.

Broad beans are abundant in the Summer months and I believe there are many benefits to eating broad beans seasonally and you quite often save money when seasonal savers are available in the supermarkets. Broad bean soup is a quick way to get a dose of the Summer harvest.

The kids love a smooth soup and its the perfect way to get lots of nutritional green foods into their tummies. You can hide all sorts of vegetables that they wouldn’t normally eat in a pureed soup. My kids can be so fussy when it comes to vegetables and I really try to get the good stuff in. Broad bean soup is a great way to do that!

We love Summer and quite often leave soups to the Winter months but staying in beautiful Scotland we get cold rainy days here too and love a Summer soup to warm us up on a cold wet day. Broad bean soup does just that!

Grow you own…

Broad beans are so easy to grow and perhaps next Spring you could try growing some of your own. Check out the RHS Gardening page on growing your own broad beans for some advice. The kids love watching the beans sprout in the Spring and grow into huge plants by the Summer! Watch out for pests though as they can be quite attractive to certain pest. We grow organically and have avoided garden pests the natural way.

‘To be kept up to date with delicious seasonal recipes don’t forget to subscribe to this blog by filling in your email address at the button on the top right hand side’

Broad Bean & Broccoli Soup Recipe

1 tbsp of coconut oil or butter

1 chopped onion

1 sliced leeks

2 large handfuls of broad beans (once pods removed)

1 small head of broccoli chopped

3 large potatoes peeled and chopped

1cm sized piece of tumeric or 1tsp of dried tumeric

sprinkle of garlic salt

sprinkle of cumin

fresh chicken stock if available or a vegetable stock cube (enough to cover the vegetables and up the pan a little)

sea salt and pepper

cheddar to top off the soup or other toppings from the list above

Recipe Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a large soup pot on a medium heat. I like to use my cast iron soup pan.
2. Add in the onions and cook for around 10-15mintues until softened.
3. Add in the broad beans, broccoli, potatoes and leeks and stir through for a few minutes.
4. Season with a tsp of cumin and add any other spices in here too.
5. Add in the tumeric and the stock to cover the vegetables. You can also add in extra stock when blending to create the consistency you desire.
6. Leave to simmer on a medium heat for about 30 minutes until the vegetables are all soft.
7. Ladle the soup into the blender very carefully. If you prefer you can leave to cool slightly first. Blend on a low speed and slowly increase a little until fully blended through.
8. Serve up immediately with toppings of choice. We love a drizzle of olive oil, cheddar cheese, and some croutons if available.
9. You can also serve some crusty bread on the side of the soup.

If you enjoyed this recipe you might like some of my other new blog posts detailed down below. Just click on the images to go straight to the delicious recipes!