Friday, February 24, 2012

Easy Broccoli Cheese Soup!

Missy, here. It was 77 degrees in Georgia yesterday, so my planned sharing of hot, yummy soup seems out of place! But I wanted to share a new recipe anyway. I tried this a couple of weeks ago and loved it. I first saw it made on Food Network on Ree Drummond's show (click here for the original recipe). She made it look so simple that I grabbed up ingredients I had on hand, modified her recipe and bit since I didn't have exactly what I needed, and made it that night. Here's my version.



Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1 diced onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups milk (I only have skim)
2 cups half-and-half
freshly grated nutmeg to taste (just a pinch)
4 heads broccoli cut into florets (I had a bag of pre-washed veggies and used all the broccoli plus added some cauliflower to make the equivalent of about 4 heads)
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
3 cups grated cheese (I had a 4-cheese Italian mix on hand)
Optional: chunks of ham or chopped bacon (I used pre-cooked bacon)


Chop the onion. I wanted to show an easy way I've learned watching cooking shows. Peel it. Then cut off one end, but save the root end. Set it on the cut side, and then slice downward all the way around the onion (see the photo above). Then turn it back on its side, hold onto the root, and slice. It'll come apart in nicely chopped pieces. :)



Melt the butter in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent.


Sprinkle the flour over the top. Stir and cook for one minute. Pour in the milk and half-and-half. Stir.


Then add nutmeg, broccoli (and cauliflower if you want), salt and pepper.



Here it is steaming. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer on low until broccoli is tender, about 20-30 minutes.


Add the cheese and allow to melt
.


I chopped my pre-cooked bacon and stirred it in.


You can mash the veggies some or even put portions in a blender to smooth it. I mashed mine a little with my potato masher. Someday, I'll invest in an immersion blender.

Eat and enjoy!


12 comments:

  1. Oh, oh, ohhhhhh, I'm going to make this one for sure! I wonder if you can freeze it? Can you freeze soups with dairy in them? That's the drawback of cooking for one most of the time. How many servings does this recipe make, Missy?

    And grrrr to your 77 degrees. It's snow storm warnings for us up here -- 20 cms worth. Bah! But I will appreciate the soup so much more in the cold, won't I?

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  2. Kav, I've never tried freezing soup, so I don't know. But I do know this makes a gazillion servings! My guess would be at about 10-12. So you might want to cut it in half. Or throw a snowed-in party! :)

    Stay warm!

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  3. I'm with Kav. It may be warm in GA, but up here we're enjoying winter for a change - and a perfect day for soup!

    Every recipe seems to have that special something that makes it unique - I think it's the nutmeg in this one. The blend of flavors sounds divine...

    I've frozen soups with dairy, but they don't reheat as well - the dairy can "break" somewhere in the freezing/reheating process. The flavor is still good, though!

    If I was making this for one, I'd make a half recipe, and then enjoy the leftovers for lunch for the next few days.

    Thanks for the onion chopping tip, Missy! I'm going to have to try it with the next onion.

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  4. I hope the chopping method works for you, Jan! It's difficult to describe it. That's why I took the photos. :)

    Enjoy the hot soup! We're getting storms today, so I think it's going to cool off. Was 68 this morning at 6:15 am! In February!

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  5. Missy, does this mean I should give up my Bear Creek soups, LOL?????

    This looks delicious. I'm smiling just thinking about warm soup. It's 40 and pouring rain here, definitely end of March weather, not end of February, but I'm not complaining because I don't have to pay anyone to plow rain and I don't have to shovel mud.

    But this is making me SO HUNGRY.

    I wonder if freezing milk/cream soups works? It doesn't work for pies because they get watery. The milk separates in the thawing.

    I bet it would mess up the texture.

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  6. Our temp is dropping now. The house got so hot that we just opened the front and back door to let in a breeze. I'm getting a little on the cool side now! :)

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  7. We had some warm days earlier in the week but it's perfect soup weather now - cold, windy, rainy.

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  8. We dodged the worst of the storm yesterday. It's cool and gorgeous here today. Will be in the 50's. So I'm thinking I'll do soup tonight. The sausage-kale soup my daughter loves.

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  9. I didn't get a chance to tell you yesterday that I LOVE this recipe! It's so much simpler than the one I've been planning to make but keep procrastinating over. And it was perfect for a hurried company lunch on a dreadfully rainy day yesterday, especially since I just happened to have all the ingredients on hand. So, thanks! :)

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  10. Carol, I'm so glad you got to make it! It's easy but sooo good! Thanks for letting me know. :)

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