At our house we often eat soup on Friday nights. This allows for two things: easy leftovers for the weekend, and room in our stomachs for Friday night fun (aka snacks.) I love soups of all kinds, but one of my favourite ways to make soup is to roast vegetables and then blend them with liquid. Our Ninja Blender works well for this. It's a great way to eat more veggies without even trying. And for this soup I added some leftover ham I had in the freezer from Christmas. Yup, I made a whole ham roast for just the two of us. We've been enjoying the leftovers!
Also, last year I learned that you can roast frozen vegetables. That has made this style of soup even easier to make. No more chopping! I used to think roasting frozen vegetables would just make them soggy, but that's not true. The water evaporates and the veggies still end up with a nice char, and roasted flavour. I look forward to roasting even more vegetables this year.
Ingredients:
750g frozen broccoli florets (1.5 bags)
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt, pepper, paprika (to taste)
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup shredded cheese
2 cups chopped ham
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper for easy clean up.
Place broccoli florets on baking sheet.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Season generously with salt, pepper and paprika.
Toss and spread in an even layer on baking sheet.
Roast for 30 min, tossing half way.
Allow to cool slightly.
In a blender, add 1 cup vegetable broth and the roasted broccoli.
Blend until it's reach your desired consistency. Add more vegetable broth to blender if needed.
Scrape contents of blender into a medium sauce pan. Add the rest of the vegetable broth and cook on medium low.
Stir in shredded cheese until it melts.
Add the chopped ham.
Cook soup until heated through (5-10mins.)
Enjoy!