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!