Hope you're having a nice Tuesday 😁

In literature, we have an expression to refer to the immensity behind seemingly minuscule details, like the complex chess-world behind the mirror that Alice passes through in Carroll's second novel: multum in parvo ("much in a little"). Sometimes the flavors that we find most exquisite and that make it worthwhile to use the last sip of wine result from an accident, from adversity, from scarcity. I didn't have enough ingredients to make anything I could think of, so I decided to make a lot with what little I had... And with every little bite, oh, so much aroma and flavor!

Sometimes, when we haven't gone grocery shopping and there are just a few things left in the kitchen, culinary luck smiles on us. This time, I want to share with you one of those recipes that are simple, but that rarely happen in the kitchen because they're made with what's left over in the fridge and pantry. It all started with broccoli stems, stale bread, and a little coconut milk.

INGREDIENTS

• 400 gr broccoli stems & stalk (discard most fibrous and dry parts)

• 2 cups onion

• 1 cup sweet chili pepper (I used jobito and hot rosa)

• 1 tablespoon fresh garlic for soup & 2 cloves (1 tablespoon) for the croutons

• 4 cups water

• 1 medium size bay leaf

• 1 spoonful cornstarch

• 1 tablespoon salt

2 cups croutons (stale bread cubes soaked in coconut milk and fried with bacon and finely chopped garlic)

• 100 gr bacon

• 2/3 cocnut milk (I used homemade)

• freshly cracked pepper to taste

• a handful of roasted almonds

THE PROCESS

Broccoli creamy soup

I had washed these stems when I used a huge broccoli to make crepes. I checked that there wern't parts too fibrous or dry. There were pieces of stalk, too.

I removed the pedicels from the sweet chili pods but left the seeds and veins. I coarsely chopped the onions, flatenned the garlic cloves, and put everything in a pot...

...along with the broccoli stems.

Then I added the water, the bay leaf, and the salt.

I brought the pot to a simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes. Next, I removed the pot from the heat and let it cool enough to process it all in the blender, everything except the bay leaf (which I could have left in; sometimes I do, especially to make vegetable spread).

I mixed it well in the blender.

Then I added the cornstarch to make it thicker.

I gave it another go in the blender and back in the pot.

Cook over medium heat until thickened, about 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Then turn off the heat and prepare the croutons.

Croutons

I finely chopped the 100 grams of bacon and the two cloves of garlic; I sliced the almonds. I fried it all in a little olive oil.

While the bacon, garlic, and sliced almond were getting crispy, I cut the bread, first into large sticks and then into cubes of about 2 cm. I poured the coconut milk to soak them a little before putting them in the wok. In addition to making them delicious, the soaking in coconut milk meant that they did not absorb as much oil and fat from the bacon.

Once the bacon, garlic and almonds were crispy, I added the soaked bread cubes and stirred while cooking over high heat for a couple of minutes, until they began to brown.

TIME TO SERVE THE SOUP

I usually serve two ladles of creamy soup in each dish, and that's how I did it this time. There was enough soup left in the pot to eat again the next day, which was excellent, since I was short of everything to cook again 🙃

I was generous with the croutons. We were really hungry!

After I considered it was enough, I sprinkled freshly cracked black pepper on top. I was generous with the pepper, too 😁 I always am, and that's why I'm short of black pepper, too!

At this point I didn't know how much we were going to like this. Wow. We usually have soup like this; the big difference now was the amount of sweet chiles I added. It definitely makes a difference, and it's just great to our taste.

I really think this soup was quite budget friendly because it had a little bit of everything I used and, besides, we ate it with infinite hunger, haha, which increased its true value whatever the cost (in money).

Do you also love croutons in your creamy soup?

How do you like them?

The varied textures, the perfume of sweet chili and roasted flavors made this soup a memorable meal for us. The best part was that I used leftovers: the broccoli stems and stalk, stale bread, the handful of old almonds I had forgotten in the pantry, and the little bit of coconut milk in the fridge. It all came together to make a very pleasant dish.

As always, I hope you have found this post useful 😁❤️

Bon appetite!

All text and images are my own. I have taken the pictures with my Redmi 9T cell phone. And if any GIFs here, I've used GIPHY for all them.

Thank you so much for your visit :)

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