Here lately I have been on a huge kick to try and find out what each day of the year meant and do something food related with it. Which is way more time consuming then I thought at first, and might take me a minute to get into the swing of trying to do things ahead of time-but I'm getting there.
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| 4 months of writing what each day means-my hand hurt after |
Take yesterday for example; it was National Homemade Soup Day and Stuffed Mushroom Day, so how in the world could a day like yesterday go wrong. Well unless you’re a mushroom hater, but I stuck with the soup aspect so that saves the day for them. Luckily I made it to the store to get everything I needed for this recipe before the storm started (more snow, imagine that). I literally closed my door behind me and then looked out the kitchen window and it was just coming down. I think an inch an hour is how fast it came down at first. Anyway, with it being snowy and cold and blah outside it was pretty much a perfect evening to be making soup.
I have to be honest though. I am not the biggest Broccoli Cheddar Soup fan. I’m not opposed to it, and I don’t mind the homemade kind (depending on how you make it). But the store bought kind that come in a beautiful bread bowl that makes you think it’s going to be absolutely, amazingly delicious…and then turns out to be a cheddar loaded cheese bomb. This is all personal preference, so please don’t bash me for it, if you love it that’s greats because it lived up to what you wanted. But for me, I like cheddar cheese, but the main point in getting this soup is I want to taste the broccoli (Again, maybe it’s just me, I do have food issues). It just always seems to taste a whole lot more like cheese, and carrots and everything else but broccoli.
Thus Cream of Broccoli Soup made an appearance at my house, and with not one ounce of any kind of cheese added to it. It is simply broccoli at its best I think, and has the rich and jam packed flavor of broccoli that I have been looking for in a soup. Plus I got to use my brand new handy dandy immersion blender which is always an added bonus in my book. Enjoy J
Cream of Broccoli Soup
Ingredients:4 tbsp. butter
1 large onion, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound broccoli, chopped
3 cups chicken veloute sauce, hot**
4 cups chicken stock, hot
4 fl. oz. heavy cream
Kosher salt and black pepper,
Broccoli florets, blanched
Directions:
1. Sweat the onions, celery, garlic, and broccoli in the butter, without browning. Cook until the onion is almost translucent and the celery and broccoli are almost tender.
2. Add in your veloute sauce (see ** below for more information on this). Bring to a simmer and then continue to cook until all of the vegetables are tender, around 10 minutes.
3. Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth. If you don't have an immersion blender, working in batches blend the soup in a blender and return to pot.
4. Thin the soup to the consistency you would like using the chicken stock, you do not have to use the entire amount called for.
5. Bring the soup to a simmer once it is at your desired consistency, add in the cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Serve soup in bowls and garnish with the blanched broccoli florets and croutons if desired.
**Veloute is one of the five mother sauces. It is usually used with a chicken or fish stock (a lighter stock) and a blond roux. For this recipe I used 4 tbsp. of butter and melted this in a small stock pot over medium high heat. I then added 4 tbsp. of flour (you want equal parts butter to flour when making this) and whisked this to incorporate it and let it cook for a few minutes so that the blond roux could form and the flour was cooked down. It should have a nutty smell to it. I slowly whisked in 3 cups of chicken stock, then turned the heat to low and kept it at that until I needed it for the soup recipe.
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