Broccoli Soup with Lemon Cream (adapted from Orangette)

Adapting a recipe from Orangette, I wanted to use up a few things from last week’s produce shipment in a soup and created this broccoli soup.

1 lb broccoli
1 qt stock (I use low sodium chicken stock in the paper containers, ideally would make it myself)
1/2 preserved lemon (can sub fresh lemon, check Orangette’s recipe)
1 red onion
sour cream
garlic
Parmesan & Parmesan rind
butter
olive oil
salt & pepper

Wash & chop coursley your broccoli. Meanwhile, heat in a soup pot 1T butter and 1T olive oil. Dice your red onion roughly. Add the red onion to the medium heated oil.

When translucent but not caramelized, add the garlic (5 cloves roughly), cooking for 2 minutes. Add the broccoli, parmesan rind, and the stock.  Bring to heavy simmer, reduce to light simmer, partially cover.

Clean & chop your chives, and finely mince additional garlic (2-4 cloves). Mix sour cream with chives, garlic, and several T of finely grated parmesan, with a twist of salt & pepper. Mince finely some preserved lemon (I made preserved meyer lemons in salt & lemon juice very simply this past fall, and this was the first time I had the delight of using them). Use a generous amount but check the taste as you add.

When broccoli is cooked through but not gray, use a blender or food processor to puree the soup in batches not overloading the device. Mix in roughly half the sour cream mixture, and serve with a bit on top.