Soup Recipe

An Excellent Creamy Hearty Broccoli Soup Recipe
By Judi Mehrens




With wintertime full upon us, cooking hearty soups is a great way to keep our families well fed and warm. While soups and stews that have meat as a main component are a great choice, creamy soups of vegetables are great, too, and should not be overlooked.

One the favorites at my house is cream of broccoli. It's extremely easy to make, especially if you have a food processor or stick blender. And it is inexpensive, as well. I keep all my broccoli trimmings, including stems, and freeze them until I have enough to make soup. About 4 cups of trimmings is enough for a hearty meal for me and my husband.

You'll want to be sure you remove as much of the tough peel as you can, and it's best to do it before you freeze the trimmings. You can, of course, leave it on and strain your soup after cooking, but I think that adds an unnecessary step that doesn't add any flavor.

Here's a very basic recipe for a creamy, pureed vegetable soup. Any vegetable that you like can be substituted for the broccoli, of course. I've had good luck with cauliflower and carrots, although those soups use the vegetable and not the trimmings.




The basic recipe is to put the vegetables or trimmings into a good, heavy pot. Cover the vegetables with chicken stock, and cook until the vegetables are soft. Puree the vegetables and stock in your food processor, blender, or us a stick blender. Thin the soup with more stock or water if it is too thick.

A different, and still very good, flavor can be attained by lightly sauteing chopped onion, celery, or garlic -- or all -- in some butter or olive oil in the soup pot before adding the vegetables and liquid.

You don't need to use chicken stock as your liquid. A good vegetable broth works very well, as does plain water, although I don't think the soup is as hearty and tasteful with just water. I keep meaning to try a beef broth with this recipe, but chicken stock is just about my favorite taste, so my good intentions to test variations goes by the wayside.

The soup is pretty wonderful just as is, but if you add just a little bit of cream, perhaps 1/4 cup, you get a lovely finish to the texture of the soup.

This soup is elegant enough to impress company with, either as your starting course or as your entree. Be sure to save some of the small florets of broccoli to use as garnish. You can either sprinkle them on the top of the soup uncooked, or parboil for a couple of minutes, or cook in the microwave just to soften. You do want them to retain the deep color to show up well on the beautiful lighter green soup.




An excellent accompaniment to the soup is some really good chewy textured bread. At my house, we often have garlic bread. A warmed baguette served with fresh butter of a dip of olive oil is also excellent.

This soup is good at any time of the year. For summer, it can be made a bit thinner, and it tastes quite good served at room temperature. Piping hot is what is called for in winter time. You can expect to hear raves from your family whenever it is served.