
Cream of Broccoli Leaf Soup
When I first started growing broccoli, I couldn’t believe how big each plant got and how much space this crop took up in my garden! I had always just bought my broccoli from the store (often just the crowns), so I had no real concept of what an entire broccoli plant even looked like.
So when it came time to harvest our first broccoli crop, I was a bit sad that so much of the plant went to waste when we harvested just the broccoli floret in the middle. The bulk of the plant was made up by the leaves, and as far as I knew at that time, the leaves weren’t edible.
Fast forward a few years later and I now know that broccoli leaves are not only edible, they’re delicious (and packed full of nutrients too). They taste pretty much just like the broccoli florets with just a leafier, um, texture. Sort of like kale. They’re fantastic sautéed up, dried and turned into powder or blended into this alternative take on cream of broccoli soup. And the best part is, I no longer waste half of my broccoli crop to the compost! No sir. We eat every edible part of the plant from the florets to the stalks to the leaves.
This is by far my favourite way to enjoy broccoli leaves. I used to make cream of broccoli soup all the time (and I still do), but now I prefer to use the leaves if possible to make them stretch in this soup and use the florets in other ways. And it’s hard to even tell the difference between the standard cream of broccoli soup and this cream of broccoli leaf soup. In fact, I served it to my husband Ryan last night and he didn’t even notice I’d used leaves instead of florets.
But the biggest win for me is that my two-year-old daughter loves this soup so much she begs for more. Which is HUGE considering we are right in the thick of the “vegetable phobia” stage of life. She wouldn’t touch a broccoli leaf if I sautéed it and served it to her whole or in a stir-fry, but she loves the flavour of this soup and the broccoli leaves are blended right in so she’s oblivious to the fact that she’s actually eating vegetables.
But what to do if you don’t grow your own broccoli? Where do you go to find broccoli leaves?
Well, since there’s still some strange stigma that the leaves are somehow inferior to the florets, most markets discard them, which means you might be able to get your hands on some for free.
Related: How to Grow Broccoli From Seed
My local farm market has a bin labeled “greens” beneath the broccoli display, where shoppers discard the broccoli leaves they pull off of the florets. Last year I asked if I could have them and they were more than happy to give them to me for free. So go ahead and ask at your local market! Otherwise you’re just going to have to grow your own (which I always encourage).
Broccoli can be grown as a summer or fall crop, so chances are you could be harvesting some from your own garden in just a few months if you get started now.
If you’re really hard-pressed to find leaves, you can always sub out the leaves in this recipe for regular broccoli florets. This soup is delish either way. But if you are looking for a way to use up those broccoli leaves and let nothing go to waste, this is the recipe for you!

Cream of Broccoli Leaf Soup
Ingredients
- 1 large bunch of broccoli leaves (healthy leaves from about 3 or 4 plants) or approx. 8 cups chopped leaves
- 3 quarts of chicken stock (or substitute veggie stock)
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 celery sticks, chopped, ends discarded
- 1 cup of butter, divided (½ cup for sautéing veggies and ½ cup to make a roux)
- 4 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup of flour
- salt & pepper to taste
- shredded cheddar cheese to top
Instructions
- First, make your soup broth if you’re making it from scratch. Otherwise dump 3 quarts of chicken or vegetable stock in a large stainless steel pot and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a pan and get ready to sauté your vegetables.
- Discard any brown or yellowing broccoli leaves and chopping off any rough, hard ends on the stalks. Chop broccoli leaves into small enough pieces to sauté in a pan and set aside. Chop and discard celery ends and then roughly chop your celery and onion. Add celery and onion to the pan with your melted butter and sauté until translucent but not brown. Add cooked celery and onions to your broth.
- Add another tablespoon of butter to your pan and a handful or two of chopped broccoli leaves and a pinch of salt. Cover with a lid to help steam and sauté on medium heat until leaves are wilted and stalks are tender, then add them to your broth. Continue to do this with the leaves, sautéing in batches until they’ve all been cooked and added to your broth.
- Using an immersion blender, blend your soup together until there are no large chunks of vegetables left. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can use a regular blender. Just be careful not to fill it too full as it could overflow when the hot liquid and veggies are blended together.
- Next, make your roux. (A roux is simply a thickener for soups and stews made from butter and flour). Melt ½ cup of butter over medium-low heat in a saucepan. Add 1 cup of flour and whisk together, stirring constantly. Add cream, one cup at a time, whisking briskly until ingredients are well combined and mixture is more or less smooth. Continue doing this until you’ve added all 4 cups of cream. Then add your roux to your soup and stir well to combine. Bring soup back up to a simmer for a few minutes and allow it to thicken.
- Turn heat off and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot topped with a little shredded cheddar cheese.
Related Posts:
7 Comments
Submit a Comment

ABOUT ANNA
You Might Also Like
How to Use a Rocket Mass Heater to Cook & Heat Off-Grid
* This article contains affiliate links. For more information, please read my Affiliate Disclosure. Learn how to heat and cook off-grid with a rocket mass heater, and why this is an even more energy-efficient solution than a traditional wood stove! This is a...
My Favourite Things – 2022 Edition (aka. The Modern Homesteader’s Christmas Wish List)
* This article contains affiliate links. For more information, please read my Affiliate Disclosure. Every year around this time, I compile a list of my favourite things: Things that I love, use or covet for my own homestead, and things that I know other modern...
If you haven't checked-in lately, the last week or so, we've sorta been in the trenches of homesteading and life over here. While some make it out to be glamorous all the time there are high's and low's just as there are in life.
With all that's going on, I've been making a point to find my way back into the garden, which is not only needed to feed my family, but also for some personal spiritual nourishment.
I just want to take a minute to love on my favorite veggie today, Broccoli! 🥦 It's one we plant over-and-over and I'm leaning into its abundance this year.
Not only is it one of my favorites, but we've also found it's one of the easiest veggies to grow so if you haven't tried it or added it to your garden yet, there's no better time than the present.
I've got an entire post on How to Grow Broccoli from Seed here: https://thehouseandhomestead.com/how-to-grow-broccoli-from-seed/ if you're looking for any tips or tricks.
In my "How to" post you'll also find a link to one of my favorite recipes for Cream of Broccoli Leaf Soup!
Can I be honest?
Sometimes you've gotta take a step back and look at the life you've created for yourself and ask yourself "is this truly what I want?"
The other day I shared about losing two of our rabbits this week to Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease. The stress of losing them comes amidst a backdrop of heightened tensions around here...
From work pressures for Ryan to me trying to run a business and handle a very fussy, colicky 2-month-old (and a very busy 6-year-old), to things ramping up in the garden again and all of the other million things that need to get done (including multiple loads of laundry a day thanks to more spit up than I ever knew a baby was capable of producing), I finally felt like I was ready to crack this week.
Oh, not to mention we're doing this all on next to no sleep thanks again to our sweet boy.
I know this is all part of what we signed up for, but when it all happens at once, it can feel completely overwhelming. And when I'm completely overwhelmed and stressed out, that's exactly when I get sick too, which is exactly what happened a couple days ago.
Then yesterday (Saturday) I woke up feeling awful and decided to scroll Instagam as I nursed Noah. I saw other mothers with 6, 8 or even 10 kids somehow keeping it all together getting three square meals on the table every day while managing to keep a tidy kitchen and find time to Instagram about it.
I saw other homestead bloggers reaching new levels of success in their business that I can only dream about right now. And as I sat there in bed, covered in spit up with a ravenous baby nursing off me as I tried to console him, I felt sad for myself in that moment that I couldn't live up to the folks I was comparing myself to.
Later in the day I had to work, so Ryan took the kids to the beach and I stayed home. And I felt sad once again; Sad that I was missing out on yet another weekend with my family because I had created a life where I now have to work weekends just to keep up.
But the silver lining was that the work I had to do yesterday forced me out into the garden, and it was probably the most soothing thing I could have done for my soul.
(Continued in comments…)
Sometime homesteading looks like homegrown vegetables and freshly laid eggs and sourdough rising on the counter.
And sometimes it looks like tears when you have to bury one of your animals 😔
Ryan went out to feed the bunnies yesterday and Flopsy -our little black and white bunny- was laying dead in the pen. There was no blood, other than a little bit by her mouth. Seems like something internal happened. We’re not sure what.
Evelyn helped lay her to rest yesterday. It was a hard weekend for her. First she stayed with grandma and went with her to put her sick, 17-year-old cat down. Then she came home to the news that Flopsy was gone.
But I believe she’s more resilient because of it. We talked to her about how death is a part of all life, and allowed her to go through the stages of grief and process it however she felt she needed to.
Homesteading isn’t always sunshine and rainbows and snuggly barnyard animals. Homesteading teaches us hard lessons and helps us to become stronger and more resilient by challenging us daily.
Yesterday was a sad, hard day. But I’m glad we got to experience it together as a family.
A few years ago, Forbes published an article titled Dear Homesteaders, Self-Reliance is a Delusion.
Let’s unpack this…
What does self-reliant really mean? Is it actually achievable, or just a pipe dream?
Over on the blog today I'm unpacking all of these thoughts, and the things I do know for sure as a homesteader, mother and member of a strong and self-reliant community.
But I really want to hear from you! Post in the comments below what self-reliance means in modern times, or what steps you're taking to be more self-reliant.
Read the full article here: https://thehouseandhomestead.com/what-is-self-reliance/ or at the link in my bio
The spring issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine is out now!
It’s that time again...
The time when things begin ramping up in the garden, the barnyard and the home.
From trays of seedlings to baskets full of eggs, spring is in the air and I don’t know about you, but I’m here for it!
It’s also time for a brand new issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine, and boy do we have a good one for you…
In the spring issue, we cover a diverse range of topics from how to trade your skills for land to the realities of going off-grid, from seed-starting to what to do with too many eggs, and from the simple joys of a homemade herbal cocktail to the sometimes heavy emotional toll of raising meat animals.
In this issue, you’ll find:
🌱 What it really takes to live off-grid, with Tammy Trayer of Trayer Wilderness
🌱How you can trade your skills for a piece of land with the SKIP program from the folks at Permies.com
🌱 Everything you need to know about seed-starting to set your garden up for success and abundance!
🌱 What to do with too many eggs! Author Mimi Dvorak-Smith shares 800+ ways to use ‘em up when your hens start laying.
🌱 How to make your own healthier cocktails with homemade botanical syrups
🌱 Dealing with the emotional toll of raising meat animals on the homestead
Visit modernhomesteadingmagazine.com to login to the library and read the spring issue (current subscribers) or subscribe for just $19.99/year to read this issue and gain instant access to our entire library of past issues!
#modernhomesteading #homesteading #selfsufficiency #springonthehomestead
If you grow plants from seed (or if you want to), you’re likely going to want to start a few of them indoors. And if you start your seeds indoors, something that will make your life so much easier (and make your seedlings bigger, stronger and healthier) is an indoor growing stand with grow lights.
I've got a post I'm sharing with you today that will walk you through choosing the best type of lighting for whatever you're growing and then a step-by-step guide of how to make your grow stand, along with product recommendations if you want to make yours just like mine!
Ours can accommodate up to about 200 seedlings, but you can make yours as small or big as needed:)
You can check out the post here https://thehouseandhomestead.com/how-to-build-indoor-growing-stand/ or at the link in my bio.
Let me know in the comments what you're growing new, or what you're most excited about in your planting journey this year!
Theme of the Month: ADIDAS
No, not the textiles brand, it stands for: 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗜 𝗗𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 because it's officially March and we are in full swing around here!
Before you just start throwing seeds in the ground or into red solo cups on your windowsill, it’s important to take some time to read your seed packets and get to know each crop’s specific needs.
Understanding the information on a seed packet is super important when it comes to gardening, especially if you want your plants to get a strong, healthy start and produce an abundance of food for you. And what gardener doesn’t want that?!
Set yourself up for success and take a minute to read through my 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥 & 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘎𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦, before your weekend gardening plans begin.
Grab the guide link in my bio, or get it here: https://thehouseandhomestead.com/how-to-read-seed-packets/
Happy Planting:) ✨
This all-natural homemade toothpaste recipe is made with just four simple ingredients that are good for both your body and your bank account!
I’m on a personal mission to replace every commercially-made, toxic product in our home with homemade, all-natural alternatives. One-by-one, I’m getting closer every day.
The benefit of making all-natural toothpaste at home is avoiding the unhealthy additives found in most commercial toothpastes by substituting ingredients with proven benefits for oral health.
So if you’re also on a mission to rid your own home of toxic products and replace them with healthy, all-natural versions that actually work, then I highly recommend whipping up a batch of this all-natural homemade toothpaste.
Wishing you health, wealth and squeaky clean teeth… The all-natural way;)
You can find the recipe here https://thehouseandhomestead.com/all-natural-homemade-toothpaste-recipe/ or at the link in my bio.
It's that time of year 🌱 seed starting season!
I know you can feel it too. The transition from winter to spring is truly a special time. It’s when life begins again. It’s the very first taste of all that lies ahead.
So before you go just planting any and every seed you can get your hands on, I've got a list of 8 Things to Think About Before Starting Seeds, to get you off on the right food!
I will walk you through, planning, sowing, containers, watering, lighting and more, and if that's not enough you can download my Seed Starting Cheat Sheet at the end to lay it all out.
I hope you're as excited as I am for the beautiful Spring season that lies ahead:)
You can find the list here https://thehouseandhomestead.com/before-starting-seeds/ or at the link in my bio.
What are you planting this year? Anything new you've never tried before? Share with me in the comments!
Ever thought about growing mushrooms at home??
A great EASY way to get started is with one of these mushroom grow kits from @northsporemushrooms
All you need to do is cut open the pack, spray with a little water (the kits even come with a handy little spray bottle), and then sit back and watch the magic happen!
And seriously, watching mushrooms goes does feel a little like magic because they grow so fast you can practically see them growing, no time lapse necessary!
The mushrooms are ready for harvest in just a few days. No gardening experience or land necessary! Even a newbie homesteader in an apartment in the city can grow these babies!
This is a great way to dip your tow into the much bigger world of mushroom growing and harvesting, and to try out a few new varieties that you probably won’t find anywhere else.
I grew Pink Oyster Mushrooms, Lion’s Mane and Blue Oyster Mushrooms (all pictured here). I’ll be using the Pink Oyster Mushrooms in a rigatoni pasta for dinner tonight. I turned the Lion’s Mane into Lion’s Mane “crab cakes” and the Blue Oyster Mushrooms are delicious as part of a stir fry or sautéed in butter and spooned over sourdough toast.
If this reel intrigues you, you can grab your own mushroom grow kit (along with time of other mushroom related products, including fruiting blocks, outdoor log kits, medicinal tinctures, capsules and more) at northspore.com. Use code HOUSEANDHOMESTEAD for 10% off your order!
And if you haven’t yet, be sure to check out my interview with Louis Giller of North Spore Mushrooms in the winter issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine. You can also find my recipe for Lion’s Mane “Crab Cakes,” along with other delicious mushroom recipes and an in-depth feature on medicinal mushrooms including Lion’s Mane, Reishi, Chaga and Cordyceps in the winter issue.
Visit modernhomesteadingmagazine.com to subscribe or login to the library and read the current issue.
Mushrooms really are pure magic, don’t ya think? 🍄 ✨
#mushrooms #mushroomhead #shrooming #eatyourshrooms #mushroomsaremagic #modernhomesteading #urbanhomesteading #homegrown
If you’ve been following me for any length of time, it probably comes as no surprise that I don’t exactly love relying on the grocery store to provide for me and my family, and that sentiment is only getting stronger as time goes on.
Between supply chain issues, rising food costs and the plethora of unhealthy ingredients, chemicals and GMO foods on grocery store shelves, I’d rather toil in the garden and kitchen all year to grow and preserve my own food than have to rely 100% on grocery stores to provide for me.
But that being said, we are in no way 100% self-sufficient so when I do go to the grocery story, I haveI have some ingredient guidelines in mind that I use when shopping for my family.
Check out my shopping tips, what I do and don't buy, and where and who I like to buy from here at this link https://thehouseandhomestead.com/healthy-grocery-shopping-tips/ or at the link in my bio.
Usually by late February/early March, right about nowish, I’ve pretty much had enough of winter and the thought of enjoying a tropical fruit platter and a cold adult beverage on a sunny beach in *insert tropical vacation destination here* seems to be just about all I can think about...
But with a newborn at home that's about the last thing on our to-do list right now! So this year, I will be visiting my tropical escape via my favorite Low-Sugar Mango Jam recipe.
If you do have tropical vacation plans, have a piña colada for me 🙏🏼, but if you don't then this recipe may be just what you need to "escape" for a few minutes into that tropical paradise:) 🥭🍹
Check out the recipe here https://thehouseandhomestead.com/low-sugar-mango-jam-recipe/ or at the link in my bio.
Let me know how the recipe works for you, and if add in any additional fruits to change it up!

Could this be made dairy free and gluten free , using potatoes to thicken and make creamier?
Can I use corn starch instead of flour? Gluten really upsets my stomach 🙁
Hi Brenda,
You could certainly use corn starch in this recipe but you will not get the same consistency of the soup as Anna did. And you would need to do the slurry method (corn starch in cool water and then add to your soup) as cornstarch isn’t a good substitute in a roux.
But, you can use your favorite gluten free flour for the roux which usually works at a one-to-one ratio with regular flour. I have done that a time or two for my daughter and it has worked, giving a good “roux like” consistency in other dishes.
Hi there, have you ever frozen this soup?
Generally, freezing soups with cream in them tend to not freeze well from a quality stand point. The cream can separate, clump, or change its texture and taste when frozen. When I want to freeze some extra soup from a big batch, I will remove the amount I want to freeze before adding the creamy part. And then when I reheat it, I add the creamy bit so it tastes good.
The same is true for freezing a soup with pasta…. it is better to freeze the soup without the pasta. Adding pasta/noodles when reheating works best.
Any chance you could amend your recipe to have an approx weight of the broccoli leaves? Or x number of cups? Since I am not growing the broccoli but relying on farmers markets I have no idea if the amount I have is close. I also don’t know how much florets to use if I sub out the leaves (or to supplement the little leaves I have).
And 3 quarts broth plus a quart of cream? I guess this makes a bunch? 🙂
Thanks!
Hi Marie!
I would estimate it at about 8 cups of chopped, packed leaves. Probably around 12 to 16 leaves or so, depending on size. If subbing florets, go for about the same amount (8 cups chopped florets or thereabouts).
And yes, when I make soup I make a vat! This actually freezes pretty well too, even with the cream, although you could always add the cream in later. Or you can halve the recipe too:)