Cheddar Broccoli Soup

Bread and Honey is one of my very favorite food blogs and part of that is because they are in Portland too. So as these girls went through Snowpocalypse 2008, so did I and soup was totally on the mind. Granted, I did not actually get around to doing this recipe until after the snow had melted, but it’s still cold, so that’s that. Plus, I had to wait for my stock to thaw.

I made a few changes, as I tend to, so you can check out the original here. The pictures are much nicer anyway. This soup was made possible by my dear husband not only grating all of the cheese, but preparing an appetizer for our guests while I made the soup behind schedule (stupid studying!). He’s such a good guy. This soup is even better the next day, just make sure you warm it up slowly on a double boiler or it will separate.

Cheddar Broccoli Soup from Bread and Honey: A Food Blog:

Serves at least 6

1 pound of cheddar cheese, grated finely
1 finely chopped onion
4 cloves minced garlic (because I love garlic)
"a big chunk of butter" (for me, this ended up being about ¼ c.)
a handful of flour
3-4 c. of stock (Mine was about 4 cups, veggie, from this recipe)
1 cup of milk
4 smallish heads of broccoli, chopped into small bites (I wanted it extra broccoli-y)
bay leaf
a little bit of white pepper





Lightly steam and blanch the broccoli. Set aside.

Here is where things got a little different. In the original, the onion and garlic is sautéed and flour added to make the roux. I started making the roux and forgot to cook the onion and garlic. So, after the roux was toasted and set aside, I quickly cooked up the onion and garlic with a bit of olive oil until glassy in a separate pan and added that to the roux.

To make the roux, melt the hunk of butter in a large pot and toss in bits of flour at a time. Whisk until you have a roux and continue to cook until slightly toasted. Add in the cooked onion and garlic. Then add the stock a little at a time, whisking continuously. Add the milk in the same manner. Add the bay leaf and then the cheese, much like the stock and milk. Season with white pepper (just a little or it gets a weird taste) and stir in the broccoli. Cook until the broccoli is warm and the soup has thickened a little.





Serve immediately. We had ours with some French bread and it was fabulous. I also had some last night with garlic toasts and that was also quite wonderful. This is the first Bread and Honey recipe I’ve tried, but after ogling the pretty photos and tasty recipes, I’ll have to actually make some more.