Broccoli Soup
This past Sunday while my boyfriend drank beer and watched football, I sat next to him on the couch and drank wine and flipped through old issues of the New Yorker. All in all it was a lovely afternoon: the Patriots won (I'm from New England), and I read a wonderful short story, "Broccoli," by Lara Vapnyar. In my opinion, there's nothing better than when a writer blurs the line between fiction and food: "But, most of all, Nina loved broccoli. It smelled of young spring grass, and it looked like a tree, with its hard solid stem and its luxuriant crown of tight, grainy florets. Nina bought a bunch of broccoli every week, along with various other vegetables. She carried big brown bags to her car, firmly believing that this weekend she would find time to cook."
Inspired by Vapnyar's eloquent, evocative prose, I decided to make the Creamy Broccoli Soup with Cheddar Crisps from February's Food & Wine for this week's magazine recipe review.
The recipe was part of an article about cooking on a budget. It was made up of extremely basic ingredients, the most expensive of which was the cheddar cheese. (A welcome discovery, seeing as how the other dish I was considering called for two pounds of lump crab meat—$40 at my local fish store.)
Since it was a simple pureed vegetable soup I was able to whip it up in about half an hour. I had some chicken stock on hand so I substituted it for 1 cup of the water. My cheese crisps looked just like the ones in the picture, although they cooked a bit faster, in about ten minutes as opposed to 18. After blending the soup and returning it to the pot to reheat, I tasted it and found it...exceedingly bland. I added a dash of cream, fresh pepper, and a serious amount of salt. Much better, though if you're looking for a soup that packs a powerful flavor punch, this isn't the one to make. It would best be served as a precursor to a spicy shrimp dish, or a hearty salad with lots of assertive ingredients.
Creamy Broccoli Soup with Cheddar Crisps
- serves 4 -
Adapted from Food & Wine magazine.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 white onion, chopped
3 celery ribs, sliced crosswise
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 lbs broccoli, cut into florets
3 1/2 cups water (or 1 cup stock and 2 1/2 cups water)
Pinch of fresh pepper
Copious amount salt
Dash of cream
Cheddar Crisps (recipe follows)
Procedure
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion, celery, and garlic and cook over medium heat until soft, about 7 minutes. Add the broccoli, water, and stock, if using, and bring to a boil. Simmer 10 minutes, or until broccoli is tender. Working in batches, transfer the contents of the saucepan to a blender and puree until smooth. Return to saucepan and reheat to desired temperature. Season with pepper and salt. Stir in cream, if using. Serve with Cheddar Crisps.
Cheddar Crisps
- makes 8 -
Ingredients
4 ounces (1 cup) coarsely shredded cheddar cheese
Procedure
Preheat oven to 350° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange the cheese in 8 2-inch circles. Bake until dark gold in color, about 10 to 15 minutes. Allow to cool before removing from sheet.
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5 Comments:
I just made a pureed broccoli soup a couple of weeks ago while I was putting together soups for the freezer for when I had to go on a liquid diet. I've found the same thing you've found. Even though my recipe was different, it's just not that flavorful. I much prefer brocolli as a veggie and not a soup, so I'll probably skip it next time I'm looking at a pureed soup.
doxytoo at 5:11PM on 01/26/08
Cauliflower makes for a much more flavorful soup. Same basic principles apply, though it's also good with a some lime and cumin.
mandybrown at 8:32PM on 01/26/08
I suggest roasting the broccoli first next time. I have been roasting broccoli, carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoflower and broccoli romanesco a lot this winter. It really changes the depth of flavor for all of them.
The last soup I made, I oven roasted broccoflower, first tossing the broccoflower with garlic infused olive oil, meyer lemon juice, a mild curry powder, cracked black pepper and sea salt. The rest of the soup process was pretty similar to yours above. My SO isn't a big veg person, and he really enjoyed it, even having a couple of bowls voluntarily (!) the following evening.
souvenir at 10:07PM on 01/26/08
On a quest for great broccoli cheese soup a few weeks ago I found this copycat Panera Bread recipe http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/1833/Panera-Bread-Broccoli-Cheese-S79119.shtml
I highly recommend this soup! I added a few shakes of Worcestershire and about 2 teaspoons of dijon mustard, but otherwise followed the recipe. I also made homemade croutons as the perfect topper. Will be making it again this week on request!
bobcatsteph3 at 11:15PM on 01/26/08
Try add some crumbled Stilton or Blue Cheese to it as you serve it, instead of the cheddar. Lovely!
smallblondemom at 4:37AM on 01/27/08