Vegetable Fibre Soup

Have you ever wondered what to do with the left over fibre after you've made fresh vegetable juice? I've been experimenting with recipes for years because I hate wasting so much of the healthy vegetable fibre. This soup is the first official, triple tested, nutritious recipe that we're publishing so give it a go with confidence! This recipe makes about 2.5 litres of soup and can be frozen.

Ingredients

• 4 cups vegetable fibre (the stuff your juicer spits out the side - in this case carrot, beetroot, celery)
• 8 x medium zucchinis (high water content to balance the low water content of the fibre)
• 1 x head broccoli
• 1 x large potato
• 1 x sweet potato
• 1 x onion
• 1 x whole garlic
• 2 litres of water
• 2 x ham hocks
• 3 x tablespoons of cajun spice mix
• Handful of coriander or basil leaves for serving
• 1 cup rice milk

Method

• Roughly chop potato, onion, sweet potato, zucchini and place in slow cooker (or large pot on low heat) with vegetable fibre and peeled garlic.
• Add water, ham hocks, spice mix and cook on high for 4 hours then low for 6 hours in the slow cooker or 1 hour/3 hours in a pot.
• The texture will change throughout the cooking process, softening into a pulp. The fibre acts as a thickener with the potato and sweet potato to add a smoother texture.
• When all ingredients are softened, turn off slow cooker and allow contents to cool.
• Sift through to remove bones (with a large spoon, or your clean hands!)
• You may prefer to serve the soup as is, chunky rather than smooth, but if you'd like a traditional soup place a few large scoops at a time into a food processor and blend on high until smooth.
• Add some milk to each batch to help it blend.
• I make this process easier by having a large stainless steel bowl to pour blended mix into, then I stir it all through again at the end to make sure there's no small bones from the ham hocks.
• Portion the soup into freezer containers or serve straight away, adding a splash of milk after you reheat, stirring to keep it smooth.

Ok so the photos aren't real pretty, but it tastes GREAT! The first pic shows the raw vegetable fibre straight out of the juicer. The next photo is 1 hour later, 2 hours later, then 3 hours later and the final photos are just before it goes into the blender.

Variations

• Make this soup vegetarian or vegan by removing the ham hocks and adding an extra onion with vegetable stock instead of water. You can also add chilli and extra spices for flavour, or handfuls of fresh herbs, and a touch of olive oil for smoothness. I use rice milk in this recipe, which makes it entirely vegan without the ham hocks.
• I used a variety of vegetables that were looking a little sad, but you can use almost any vegetables for this recipe. It's great to use up stuff that's in the fridge the day before market day!
• Pumpkin would be an excellent addition to this soup, even replacing the zucchini and broccoli to make it a more orange and red coloured soup.
• A chicken carcass or 2 can be used to replace the ham hocks. Soup is the perfect meal to use all of the parts of an animal and avoid waste.