A craving for comfort very often translates to a craving for soup.  This is the kind of brothy and warming brew that does it for me, completely guilt-free and totally nurturing.  Hopefully it will bring comfort to you too.

Yield: 2 servings (or 1 ginormous helping for me…)

What you need:

• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil (or olive oil)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cups of unsalted vegetable or seaweed stock (or water)
• 1 large or 2 small cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• fresh ginger (as much or as little as your palate likes), peeled and coarsely chopped
• fresh turmeric (that one is an acquired taste…  if you’re not so much into turmeric but still want the nice yellow hue for the soup, go with 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric powder and leave it at that.  me… well… I usually use a fairly sizeable fresh rhizome – but that will definitely taste!)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or more or less to your level of liking)
• 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas (canned will work)
• 3 tablespoons millet (dry toasted preferred, but plain millet is okay too.  or rice.  or quinoa)
• several sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 cup cooked broccoli or more (freshly steamed or stir-fried is ideal, but leftover and begging for being eaten from the fridge does the job as well)
• hemp heart or cashew sour cream to serve (optional)

What you do:

1. Heat a saucepan or soup pot over medium heat.  When hot, add the oil and onion.  Sauté the onion until starting to brown.  Add the garlic, ginger and turmeric and cook until fragrant, a minute or so.
2. Add the stock to the pot along with the sea salt and bring to a boil.  Cover, lower heat, and simmer until the onion and garlic are very soft.
3. Transfer the contents of the pot to a blender and blend until completely smooth.  Alternately, you can use a stick blender and do it directly in the pot – it just won’t be quite as creamy and uniform as going the stand blender route.  And as always, be careful whizzing hot liquids – they tend to expand and want to splatter – and they hurt.
4. Bring the blended soup back to a simmer in the pot (no need to wash it first, just dump it all back in).  Add the chickpeas, millet and fresh thyme sprigs.  Cover and simmer on low for 20-30 minutes, until the millet is well cooked.
5. Remove the sprigs of thyme and transfer the soup to a serving bowl or bowls.  Top with as much broccoli as desired (you may want to stir it into the hot soup first if it needs to be reheated – but the colour won’t be as vibrantly green).  A dollop of hemp heart sour cream is also nice!