On Mondays, my mom usually comes over for dinner. Hence, I make a real dinner and we eat at the table, like the olden days when multiple children still lived at home.
Times change, don’t they?
(Gail here, and this is Sam’s grandmother we’re talking about as “mom” just to keep things straight.)
Anyway, while loading up my frig with tons of food for the holidays, dealing with leftovers and normal meals, something sad happened in my frig. When putting together tonight’s meal I found some poor broccoli. Yes, poor broccoli. It had fallen out of its bag and was quite wilty. But it wasn’t bad broccoli, just poor, wilty broccoli. What to do… Hmm…
… and then there was the newly opened tin of Cougar Gold cheese on the shelf above. OMG people, this is THE white cheddar of all white cheddars. Made by our alma mater Washington State University’s creamery — WSU used to be nicknamed Moo-U as they are quite the ag/farm college among other strengths — this cheese is aged in vacuum sealed tins for 12 months before being sold. This particular tin has been in our frig for at least another year after that. It is sharp, dry, crumbly, and gritty with the best crystallization that only natural aged cheeses get. SO! GOOD! OMG!
Why would I choose to combine the poor broccoli and the stupendous cheese? In a soup saturated with flavors, both can shine. And did they ever in this small batch of Broccoli Cheese soup I made as a side dish/starter for tonight’s dinner. At 4-6 small servings, even this cheese-laden soup won’t bust your calorie budget. That’s key, though — this is meant for a small bowl.
Other veggies came out of the frig, along with some leftover heavy cream later on. Here’s my “recipe” documentation as I got creative in the kitchen!
Half a shallot (1/4 cup) and the rest of a big ol’ stalk of celery (1/2 cup) started sweating over medium-low heat in a 4 quart pan with a generous tablespoon of butter.
Meanwhile, I grated half a medium carrot (a generous 1/4 cup.) I had planned on using the whole thing for sweetness and color but changed my mind on the sweetness, and just ate the remainder of the carrot as I cooked :) Healthful, right? Added the carrot to the pan along with some grinds of black pepper. Keep stirring this as you get the broccoli ready.
Slice the stems off of 2 small heads of broccoli, even if they’re wilty. When the big florets from the outside fall off, slice some more stem off of what’s left, and repeat until you are down to about 1.5″ of florets from the center of the crown. Cut the florets from all of the broccoli into pieces with stems no bigger than a pencil diameter… -ish. We’re winging it, remember? And then chop the heck out of the stems including the leaves and peel. Did you know broccoli leaves are extremely nutritious? Now you do. Mostly done chopping in the picture above.
A convenient 4 cups. I did NOT plan that, but could it have turned out any MORE convenient? I think not. Add to the pan along with a cup (8 oz) of chicken broth. Love my Kitchen Basics brand! Cover and simmer/steam until the broccoli is very tender but not that murky olive green, stirring once or twice. Remove lid and let some of the liquid evaporate to concentrate the flavors.
Add another 2 cups of chicken broth (16 oz) supplementing with milk if desired or if you happen to be a wee bit short on chicken broth. It happens. Just sayin’ … you might end up using about 1/3 milk, 2/3 broth in that last bit, possibly ;)
Before re-heating this now-cool mixture, use your immersion blender or regular blender to puree it until smooth. Now, it’s not going to get completely smooth. The veggie fibers are going to hang out at the top of the mixture if you let it stand, and will taste-test as somewhat chunky unless you have an amazing blender. But that’s OK, because now we’re going to bring everything together!
With cheese…
This is how I figured out how much cheese I would end up using. Crumble up a bunch of your delicious sharp white cheddar (more than I thought I would need, but oops, it wasn’t!) Weight it in a measuring cup. Then, because you didn’t tare your scale with the empty cup beforehand, weigh the cup. A scant 2 cups of large crumbled cheese = 8 oz. (11 oz together, minus the 3 oz cup) Again, could it have been any more convenient? Nope!
Well, mom says I didn’t really need all the cheese because she didn’t taste enough broccoli. I say, phhht! I could taste *some* broccoli, and for this, that’s enough. She’s not really a cheese person so we’ll take her opinion with a grain of salt. Which, by the way, you don’t really need to add because the cheese will salt the soup. You can adjust the salt level before serving.
Heat the soup on the stove until hot but not boiling, uncovered, and let cook for 5-10 minutes. Turn heat down to low and slowly add the cheese a handful at a time, whisking until it melts before adding more. This will keep it from being too grainy or stringy. But with natural aged cheddar you are going to have some graininess. That’s just the nature of it. Be cool.
After the cheese is all added, stir in 2-4 Tbsp. cream for extra body and lusciousness. I had an open pint of heavy whipping cream so that’s what I used. I made a good choice. *patting self on the back* Heat to serving temperature if it has cooled too much, but do NOT let it get anywhere near boiling. (180F – 190F, and preheat your bowls if possible.)
Walk out of the kitchen…
… and serve up a delicious starter soup!
It would be good topped with garlicky croutons! But that wasn’t on the menu plan tonight. Neither was this soup, but hey. This took about an hour while I also finished making cole slaw, cleaned as I went, and tended the BBQ-sauced turkey shreds we heaped in buns.
Get creative with YOUR veggies! After the new year, expect to see some healthy and veggie-centric stuff from me. I always get on a healthy eating kick in January!
Gail
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