My recipe for this favorite comfort food is rich and creamy but the taste alone will help you forgot about all those incorrect things you’ve been taught about healthy diets, like dairy is bad and real butter even worse. This is a quick soup to make (start one hour before serving), but you have to do your Mise en Place up front because it comes together rather fast.
A note about cooking with cheese: you should never buy grated cheese to use in soup, buy block cheese and grate it yourself. The issue is that pre-grated cheese is coated with starch to keep it from sticking. When added to your soup it will over thicken the stock and mess with the texture. Other general notes: onion always means yellow, unless specified, butter always means unsalted unless specified, and there is a difference between stock and broth. Finally, making a roux is not hard if you take your time and works in steps, it is however the crucial step in making a soup that thickens, see my link on Mastering the Five French Mother Sauces.
Ingredients
- 3 cups Broccoli florets – cut to bite-size pieces
- 8 oz. Extra-sharp cheddar cheese – grated
- 1 TBL Olive oil
- 4 TBL Butter
- 1/4 cup Flour
- 16 oz. chicken stock
- 16 oz. heavy cream
- 1 medium onion – diced fine
- 1 clove garlic – minced
- 2 carrots – diced
- 3/4 tsp Kosher salt – or to taste
- 3/4 tsp Freshly ground black pepper – or to taste
- 1/2 tsp Smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp Mustard powder – optional
- Pinch cayenne pepper – optional
Process
- Mise en Place – measure and prepare your ingredients prior to starting.
- Dice carrots to ~1cm cubes (1/4″)
- Onions will naturally dice to thickness of each layer
- Crush garlic cloves prior to mincing.
- Sauté the vegetables:
- Heat a small saucepan on Medium, then add the olive oil and let warm.
- Add the diced onion and carrots, and sauté until onions are translucent ~4 mins.
- Add the garlic and cook 1 min, stirring constantly. Cooking longer reduces aromas
- Remove set aside.
- Make the Roux:
- Heat a large heavy-bottom pot on Med heat, a cast iron Dutch oven works best.
- As pot heats, add butter.
- After butter melts, add flour whisking constantly until the roux has a slightly tan color and soft nutty aroma.
- In repeated steps, add 4 oz stock and whisk out lumps. The roux will react with the stock but don’t worry, just keep whisking until the lumps are worked out, then repeat until all the stock is used.
- Add the cream and whisk until integrate.
- Bring soup to a boil then reduce heat and simmer ~20 mins, stirring occasionally.
- Add the broccoli florets, and previously sautéed onion mixture.
- Add the salt, pepper, paprika, dry mustard, and cayenne.
- Allow soup to simmer over low heat ~25 mins.
- Just before serving, add the cheese, reserving a small amount to top each serving with. Good quality cheese will melt quickly (~1 min), so stir constantly.
- Serve
