Monday, October 25, 2010

Broccoli Cheddar Soup... No Oven Week 4....


Just the company you keep can alter your personal habits.  This can be both positive (people that work out together), and negative (people that do drugs together), a little on the worrisome side (people that play dungeons and dragons together), or perfectly harmless like my co-workers.  I am outing all of us for the soup sucking addicts that we are.

There is a vegetarian soup shop run in Lincoln called the Grateful Bread.  Multiple days a week you can hear the rounds... I'm going for soup do you want anything... oh and the scones!!!  MY GOD MAN THE SCONES!  They are fantastic, but since I have no oven still lets not dwell on the scones for now.

It is finally a little cooler, and I have been stockpiling some soup recipes to attempt to limit the amount of time I stand in that ridiculously long line at the Grateful Bread once I am even bigger than I am now, and the temperature begins to drop as we near Winter.  I suspect standing outside in line while nine months pregnant in December will not be enjoyable... but that's just a guess.


I often find myself staring at the soups for the day thinking... why don't they ever have broccoli-cheddar soup... maybe it doesn't lend itself well to a vegetarian version but I wouldn't see why not... and then I remember... hey I've made that before, and if memory serves me corectly it was pretty good.  So I dug out the recipe and here it is.... I can't for the life of me remember why I made it with evaporated milk when most people make it with cream and this time I used red potatoes when I used russet before and I think it made it a little more gritty than I would like so I will return to the russet, but really any kind of milk type product and any potato substance should work just fine.


Next up in the stockpot.... Red Bean and Spinach!!  However, the stove is suppose to finally arrive on Wednesday so I suspect I will want to cook things in there just for the novelty of baking in a working oven.

Broccoli-Cheddar Soup

from 25-year old Eileen's Kitchen

Ingredients

Cooking spray
1cup chopped onion
4 cups chopped fresh broccoli (about ¾ pound divided)
2 cups diced peeled red potato (about ¾ pound)
½ teaspoon garlic powder
2 minced garlic cloves
2 (10 ½-ounce) cans of low-salt chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
Dash of pepper

Method

Coat a large dutch oven with cooking spray; place over medium heat until hot. Add onion and garlic; sauté 5 minutes. Add 3 cups of broccoli, potato, garlic powder, broth, and bay leaf; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Discard bay leaf. Place half of broccoli mixture into blender; cover and process until smooth. Spoon into a bowl. Repeat with remaining broccoli mixture. Return broccoli puree to pan; add cheese, milk, pepper, and remaining cup of broccoli. Cook over medium heat 4 minutes, or until broccoli is just tender, stirring until cheese melts.

Serves 8

2 comments:

  1. I need the potato leek soup recipe!!!!

    Also, I wonder if instead of putting it in the blender, would a handmixer work too? I'm the kind who tries to put it in the blender when it's really hot and I burn myself....also, I am currently blenderless.....

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  2. I actually used a food processor this time so that could be part of the gritty problem. I don't think a regular hand mixer would work, but a submergian blender would... the potato leek is on here... last October I think. I'll get you the link.

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