Broccoli Cheddar Soup!
Just look at it in all its green glory.
So tasty. So delicious. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, take a look on the internet for a recipe and you will find unspeakable horrors! Recipe upon recipe for broccoli cheddar soup that contains NO cheddar cheese but instead uses…..wait for it….cheese whiz. Yuck!
I’m sorry but the only thing grosser than cheese whiz is that weird spray cheese stuff in a can.
Really. People, please. I beg of you. Real cheese is the answer. Real cheese will set you free.
This post brought to you by the great state of Wisconsin. A state where people wear cheese hats.
This soup is so good. Easy too!
Here’s what you need:
Broccoli, Onion, Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Butter, Flour, Milk, Vegetable Broth, Water, Salt & Pepper.
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Chop up a large onion. Nothing fancy here…just a regular old chop.
Melt 1/2 stick of butter (4 Tablespoons) in a large pot. Add the onion and cook over medium heat until the onion is tender and shiny (translucent in fancy cooking terms) but not browned.
Add 3 Tablespoons of flour to the onions and cook one or two minutes until the flour becomes incorporated into the butter and onions. This is our roux to thicken the soup.
After a couple of minutes it will be quite thick and a little mushy looking.
Add one (14 ounce) can of Vegetable Broth and stir to combine. Remember to scrape up any little tasty bits from the bottom of the pot.
Take your empty broth can and fill it up with water. Add one can of water to the pot and stir it in.
Wash 2 nice fresh heads of broccoli. Cut the woody, bottom part of the stem off (you can compost or pitch them) and chop up the florets and tender stem parts.
No need to do a ton of fancy chopping here as we are going to blend this soup later to make it smooth.
Add the chopped broccoli to the pot and stir it into the liquid and onions.
Bring it up to a nice gentle boil, put on the lid and cook the broccoli for about 15-20 minutes.
After about 20 minutes you can see that the broccoli is still nice and green but is also tender and starting to fall apart.
Next we need to blend the soup to make it nice and smooth so that it will combine well with the cheese. I’m using my favorite Immersion Stick Blender but you could always use a regular old blender too.
Just remember that the soup is hot and hot liquids EXPAND in the blender. Work carefully in small batches and be sure to keep a towel and your hand ON THE LID so you don’t redecorate your kitchen with hot broccoli.
I like to blend my soup until it is pretty smooth but still has recognizable small chunks of broccoli.
After you’ve blended the soup to a lovely velvety texture, add 1 cup of regular old milk. (Sorry there is no picture of this. You’ll have to imagine milk going into the pot.)
Ha! You thought I would use heavy cream, didn’t you? Nope, just good old milk for this one.
Season the soup with salt and pepper.
Now for the good stuff. Grate 1 cup (about 8 ounces) of sharp cheddar cheese. Buy it by the block and grate it yourself. You’ll get MORE and BETTER cheese for the money without all the added preservatives and other junk.
With the heat on medium low, stir in the cheese until it melts.
See the little flecks of broccoli and cheese? You don’t get that with cheese whiz.
Start to finish, this soup can be on your table in about half an hour. Add some nice crusty French bread and you’ve got one nice dinner.
No whiz allowed.
Here’s the recipe.
