Pairing Wines with a Creamy Broccoli Soup

With the new year starting, resolutions are taken to follow an healthier lifestyle. A glass of wine to accompany a healthy meal once in a while will help you stick to the resolutions without affecting them. For this month, I have chosen to make a creamy broccoli soup from “The Love & Lemons” Cookbook. The recipe is dairy free but you can replace the coconut milk with a dairy option, such as milk or cream. The recipe serves 3 or 4.

Ingredients:

1 medium head broccoli, chopped

1 large leek, sliced and rinsed

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

1-1/2 teaspoons of white or apple vinegar

2 cups of vegetable broth

1 cup of coconut milk, plus 1/4 cup for garnish

2 to 3 cups of fresh spinach

Salt and ground pepper, as needed

Juice of 1 small lemon

Directions: Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the leek, garlic, salt and pepper. Stir and cook until the leek is soft (about 5 minutes). Add the chopped broccoli. Stir and cook until softened (about 3 minutes). Then add the vinegar, vegetable broth and coconut milk. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. After the soup has slightly cooled off, transfer it to a blender. Add the spinach. Blend the soup until smooth. Adjust the seasonings and add some lemon juice to brighten up the soup. Garnish with a drizzle of coconut milk and olive oil.

Broccoli soups can be difficult to pair with wines if you don’t know many white wine grape varieties. However floral, savory and saline white wines make fantastic pairings. Think of Grüner Vetliner, Marsanne, Rousanne, Albillo, Chasselas, Vermentino, Sylvaner, Fiano, Arneis, Greco, Grenache Gris and Verdejo. These wines will also work with other green vegetable soups such as spinach, asparagus, zucchini, leek, and collard greens soups.

For this creamy broccoli soup, my wine was a 2014 Ruth Lewandowski "Naomi" Gibson Ranch Grenache Gris. Its light medium body, waxy feel and great minerality worked beautifully with the creaminess of the soup and its pretty honeysuckle floral notes and saline undertones showed off the flavors of the soup. 

Below is a list of wines that we currently have in stock that will pair wonderfully with this soup. I hope you will enjoy these pairings!

-Caroline Coursant