I eat broccoli, stems and trees, for the nutrition. My family (kids are adults and hubs is..an..nevermind , gotta love 'em) do not care for the broccoli familyish, in soups, that would include cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kales, collards, beet or beet greens. Same for veggie broth, none of the above. So, when I use broccoli types, it's not usually very much in soups or stews. It has an odor; they don't like in cooked soups. I on the other hand drink down kale/apple/orange smoothies and eat broccoli by the bowl full, daily with my regular meals, as a way to stay healthy and fighting off whatever it is I'm suffering from, more recently. We still don't know what it is.
Instead we use potatoes, carrots, onions, zucchini, squash yellow or winter, sweet potatoes, tomato or tomato sauce, peppers the sweet type, in all forms and colors, then also the legumes and lentils, seeds and grains whole mostly, and rarely nuts.
It might be thickened with cooked or uncooked flour, or ground up lentils/legumes/seeds/veggies, in some combination, and spices added during or after cooking.