Wednesday, January 11, 2012

broccoli soup

I've been sickly for the past week or so. Last week, I started to feel less than well, and one day I really wanted soup. I didn't want to go buy any or bother with the grocery store, and my mental catalogue of ingredients in my kitchen largely seemed blank other than frozen broccoli. Broccoli soup seemed like it would work, and this recipe either had ingredients I felt comfortable leaving out or had on hand (or a reasonable substitute). It was quick, easy, and gave me something warm and soothing to eat in bed. Then I went home for the weekend and got to have my mom take care of me (including a broccoli soup of her own!).

This is how much I made, which gave me two bowls of soup.

2 teaspoons butter
1 clove garlic [I added this, who doesn't want garlic?]
3/8 onion, chopped [omitted, but would have helped]
3/8 stalk celery, chopped [omitted, but would have been good]
1 cup chicken broth
2-3 cups broccoli florets [mine were frozen]
1 tablespoon butter + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour [this is for thickening, I substituted 1/2 tbsp corn starch + water]
2/3 cup milk [I just used a bit of yogurt; creme fraiche also works]
ground black pepper to taste
grated parmesan [I added this, I love cheese]

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in medium sized stock pot, and saute onion and celery until tender. Add broccoli and broth, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Pour the soup into a blender, filling the pitcher no more than halfway full [I used my immersion blender in the soup, keeping it in the pot]. Hold down the lid of the blender with a folded kitchen towel, and carefully start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get the soup moving before leaving it on to puree. Puree in batches until smooth and pour into a clean pot. Alternately, you can use a stick blender and puree the soup right in the cooking pot.

In small saucepan, over medium-heat melt 3 tablespoons butter, stir in flour [or mix cornstarch and water together and then stir that in] and add milk [or yogurt]. Stir until thick and bubbly, and add to soup. [If you are going the cornstarch route, you just mix that separately, cold, and stir it into the soup and can mix the milk/yogurt directly in.] Season with pepper and parmesan and serve.

Nutritional information (for 1/2 of recipe, including grated parmesan)
183 total calories
10g total fat [from butter and parmesan]
11g total carbs
12g protein

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