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Monday 28 July 2008

Cream of Broccoli Soup



I've said before that The Lovely Wife is the Queen of Soups. In all my years of cooking, I have never, ever made a soup - unless of course you count opening a can of Campbell's Soup and boiling it as making soup. Not quite the same. I have to admit that she makes a darned good soup too.


One of my wife's favourite soup recipe books is the Le Cordon Bleu Home Collection - Soups. This recipe is based on one from the book although the recipe is for a Cream of Cauliflower Soup. She didn't quite think Cream of Cauliflower would be as nice as Cream of Broccoli simply because we all know how delicious broccoli can be right! Anyway, i have never heard of Cream of Cauliflower before either... and somehow don't think it would be quite as delicious, let alone colourful. There IS something to be said for a greenish soup, don't you think?

This is the recipe with broccoli substituted for Cauliflower.

about 400g Broccoli, chopped
14 g butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 small leek, white part only, sliced thinly
15g plain flour
750ml milk
Salt
Pepper

Method
Place broccoli in a pan and cover with 100ml water. Bring to the boil then let simmer for 7 minutes or till soft. Puree the broccoli and liquid together in a processor until smooth.
In a medium pan, melt butter then add onion and leek. Cook until tender. Add the flour and cook for at least a minute, stirring continuously until pale blonde in colour. Remove from heat and stir in the milk until smooth. Return to heat and bring to the boil stirring continuously. Add the puree of broccoli to the pan and season to taste.



Rather delicious I must say! The kids love it when Mummy makes soup and this is a great way to get your kids to eat their vegetables. Although in all fairness to my kids, they don't have any problems eating their veges. I just want to set the record straight so they don't read this when they are older and say that Daddy is telling stories that aren't true!


This is also the kind of soup that is perfect for a light meal or to snuggle up with on a cold winters night. Seeing that we don't have winter in this part of the world, I reckon its still a good bet to make on one of those dark and stormy nights where its pouring rain outside - and a little cool indoors!

3 comments:

David T. Macknet said...

Sounds yummy! 2 things I'd do differently: I'd make a roux with butter & flour, so that the flour would mix in more easily, and I'd strain the vegetable mix before adding the thickener ... just because that would make it so much smoother.

Sounds delicious, though, as it is.

Oh - and I resent that whole bit about not having winter, let me tell you. That's just rubbing it in, for those of us who have to wear long underwear 6 months of the year!

toontz said...

Cream of Broccoli Soup is my oldest darling's favorite.
I will definitely try this recipe!

Ruth Strong said...

I've only ever tried making vegetable soup using my mum's own recipe - it never tastes as good as hers but I'm trying..... otherwise it's tins all the way for me!

Mind you this is very tempting.... how many servings would you get from this recipe?