I was timid when it came to making a homemade creamy soup. I have had too many experiences at restaurants of ordering this kind of soup and having it arrive as thin as water or so thick its like eating gloop. At home, I had a pint of whole milk and one of half and half that I hadn’t used up from Thanksgiving week and so I searched for a recipe on epicurious.com and allrecipes.com until I found something relatively quick and easy that used these dairy products. Besides biscuits, creamed soups came up the most. I had some broccoli on hand so I chose this recipe that also had gotten almost exclusively positive reviews online.

Using the hand blender to blend the broccoli ©EverydayCookingAdventures 2012

The prep was quite minimal and the whole process went quickly, which meant I had to pay attention the whole time…no wandering off while something cooked or baked. I chose to cook the broccoli in only chicken broth instead of water so I didn’t add the chicken bouillon later in the recipe and this worked out perfectly well. Instead of pouring the cooked broccoli into a food processor, I poured it into a separate plastic container and used a hand blender to puree it. In step #3 when you let it thicken, I let it cook more like 15 minutes to get it to the thickish consistency I wanted. You can adjust this as you wish to your level of thin/thick soup.

My breadmaker whole grain bread ©EverydayCookingAdventures 2012

When the soup was all done and ready to be served up, I added a nice helping of salt and pepper and stirred it up once more before ladling into bowls and topping with pre-grated cheddar cheese. It was flavorful, not thin but not super thick, and looked appealing to eat. It was a very tasty way to eat our veggies and with some homemade from the breadmaker whole wheat bread it was a fulfilling dinner. We have enough leftovers for lunch the next day, maybe even two lunches, as it made enough for 6 soup bowl-size servings. It’s a winner! Now I’ll attempt future cream of vegetable soups using this recipe and just switching out the vegetable of choice. Here’s my soup:

Cream of Broccoli Soup ©EverydayCookingAdventures 2012

Cream of Broccoli Soup

From: Allrecipes.com
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 25 Minutes
Ready In: 40 Minutes
Servings: 3

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups water
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 1 tablespoon margarine or butter
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 small stalk celery, chopped
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 chicken bouillon cube or 1 tbsp chicken bouillon powder
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a medium-sized cooking pot, add water and broccoli florets and bring to boil; reduce heat and cook for about 3 minutes. Drain, reserving all of the water.
2. In a food processor or blender, process half the cooked broccoli until fairly smooth. Chop remaining broccoli and set aside.
3. In a heavy-bottomed cooking pot, melt butter or margarine, add onion and celery and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes until soft. Stir in flour; cook, stirring constantly for about 1 to 2 minutes. Add reserved water and chicken bouillon granules, and bring to boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium; simmer, stirring constantly until thickened about 10 minutes.
4. Stir in milk, nutmeg, pepper, and processed and chopped broccoli, and heat through. Adjust seasonings to taste. Serve garnished with grated cheddar cheese.