Ever ordered broccoli soup that doesn’t quite taste like broccoli? Like it’s been added with preservatives & frozen for a few months. Make it yourself. It’s so, so, so much better!
First, I want to say that on a scale of super healthy (being 10) to super UNhealthy (being 0), I’d say this is maybe a 6 or 7. I say that because some of the main ingredients are milk, butter and flour. However, there are ways to bring this soup’s health scale up a few points by using soy milk, olive oil, and wheat flour. I didn’t have any of those things so I’m going to show you the “classic” way of cooking it. It’s still natural (you know what’s going into it) and easy, so you should try it!
Also I didn’t have my real camera’s battery charged so I used my iPhone for these pictures. There are a lot of them because I’m lazy and would rather show you a picture of how it should look than describe it! I also happened to have the time to do it today.
For today’s soup, which had about 4-5 servings, I used 3 medium sized broccoli “trees”. So first, cut off the “leaves” from the stalks and put them in a separate bowl. We’ll use these later.
Cut up the stalks and about 1/4 of an onion.
Put them in a large hot pot which has a few teaspoons of heated olive oil in it. Add a hearty pinch of salt.
When it gets to about this point, or even a little sooner (see below), add about 1-2 tablespoons of butter. It looks like a lot in this picture but it wasn’t. Add a clove of chopped garlic if you prefer.
Once that melts, add 2-3 tablespoons of flour and stir.
After a 3-4 minutes, add a splash of milk in the mixture, which will be very thick. Don’t stop stirring.
That will thicken up very quickly. Keep the milk handy. Put another cup or two in the pan and stir.
You may have to add another cup of milk until you start to see the right consistency. You’ll know if it’s too thick or too thin. It’s easier to add milk later, so be careful not to make it too runny. Put this hot mixture into a blender and blend the snot out of it for at least 30 seconds or so, or until you don’t see any chunks. If you can’t get rid of the chunks, put it back in the pot, cook for 5-10 more minutes, then re-blend. (If you have a liquid dispenser on the bottom, please, for the love of Pete, make sure it’s not open when you poor the hot liquid into it…that was an unpleasant experience for me.)
Put the fluffy blended liquid back in the pot.
Now add the leaves.
Now stir. If you’re making a huge batch of this for the future, whether for later in the night or for future meals, you can basically go ahead and take it off the heat right now. The leaves will continue cooking in that hot liquid. The last thing you want is mushy overcooked broccoli. If you’re making it to eat immediately, cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes or so. Stir often or else it’ll burn on the bottom of the pot.
Now you’re ready to serve. I choose to only add salt as flavoring, and not any other spices at all. I like to only taste the flavor of the broccoli. However, feel free to add some cheese in the last 5 minutes of cooking, or any spices you prefer. I put a tiny bit of cheese on top, but I can tell you that the soup really didn’t need it! It’s so thick and creamy. Hope you enjoy!
Oh one more thing! What’s really cool about this method of cooking soups with the butter and flour (roux), etc. is that you can make just about any kind of cream soup the same way. You can do garlic soup, creamy carrot soup, or heck, red pepper soup if you want. It’s so easy.
Broccoli – $2.09
Quart of Milk – $1.59
4 servings – $3.69
1 Serving – ~$.92
This looks great. I like your initial prep of the soup before prior to the broccoli chunks at the end. Another variation I like is adding a small amount of peeled, chopped apple to the broccoli stalks and onion with a pinch of curry and then subbing the milk with coconut milk. But thanks, I will use your technique as opposed to my usual broccoli soup puree. Broccoli chunks. Good stuff.