Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Cream of Broccoli Soup

After 33 years of marriage my husband occasionally gets irritated with me (ok, maybe it's more than occasionally!) One of his irritations is that I get bored with cooking the same things.  I like to try new foods, techniques, variations of a familiar recipe or new recipes.  He likes the tried and true and likes some things on a regular rotation. The other night he requested cream of broccoli soup. My first thought was that I had made it a few months ago. But I played good wife that night and made it for him.  I must admit our dinner was good. 

This is a great soup, very creamy as the name implies. I like the addition of the cream, it makes for a thicker, richer soup, but if you're counting calories whole milk can easily be substituted. Sometimes I will add some shredded cheddar cheese before serving or some crumbled bacon. It's an easy and quick soup to put together, I don't know why I don't make it more often (but don't tell my husband I said that!)
I have an immersion blender and use it to puree the soup. I have had many hot soup/blender blow ups in my kitchen and the immersion blender is a nice remedy for that problem! We like our soup a little chunky so I don't blend it to a smooth puree.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

2 tablespoon butter
1/2 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
3 cups chicken broth
8 cups broccoli florets
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a medium-sized stock pot, and saute onion and celery until tender. Add broccoli and broth, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Pour the soup into a blender, filling the pitcher no more than halfway full. Hold down the lid of the blender with a folded kitchen towel, and carefully start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get the soup moving before leaving it on to puree. Puree in batches until smooth and pour back into stock pot. Alternately, you can use a stick blender and puree the soup right in the cooking pot.

In small saucepan, over medium-heat melt 3 tablespoons butter, stir in flour and add milk/cream (or substitute with 2 cups half & half). Stir until thick and bubbly, and add to soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

1 comment:

  1. Oh Julie, YUM. It looks amazing. I placed a recipe some time ago on the board for Jarlsburg Vegetable Soup that you might like. I now have a craving for your Broccoli soup after reading your post.

    Carolyn

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