We're choppin' Broccoli

Also, garlic, salt, and pepper

Will we ever run out of barely funny titles for posts?  Who can say.    This is a recipe for cream of broccoli soup.  We had some leftover broccoli, chicken stock, and cream... why not make soup?  Its a decent way to use up ingredients that might otherwise go bad; the soup itself, typically, freezes really well.  So even though you've made a preposterous amount of soup for two people... it just means you get good leftovers in a month or two!  Plus you totally get to bust out homemade fancy soup for guests who are all like, "Wha.....!?"

 

So, we looked around at four or five recipes on the web.  This is something we do a lot.  If you look at enough different recipes for the same dish, you begin to get a feel for what is necessary and what is discretionary.  If we see a recipe that looks suspiciously beginner-level, we like to see if we can find the "authentic version;" chances are that we can add some of those elements to the dish.

 We found two soup recipes online that sounded good and proceeded to take the best parts of each and put them together in my own recipe.  The originals are here and here.

We mostly followed the food network recipe, but we added some technique and ingredients from the epicurious version.

Here it is the new Chez Venza version:

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons butter.
• 1 1/2 pounds fresh broccoli, florets and stems separated. Stems chopped roughly.
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 tsp dry tarragon
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 cups homemade chicken stock
• 1/2 cup cream

Directions

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in heavy medium pot over medium-high heat. Add broccoli stems, onion, carrot, salt and pepper and saute until onion is translucent, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and tarragon and cook for 1 minute.  Add the flour and cook for 1 minute, until the flour reaches a blonde color. Add the florets.  Add stock and bring to boil.

Simmer uncovered until broccoli is tender, about 15 minutes. Pour in cream. Puree the soup with a blender or food processor. Add salt and pepper, to taste

I liked the idea of carrot in the soup.  Adds body and sweetness.

One recipe made it clear that the stems need to cook longer than the florets.
Broccoli deforestation upsets the Na'vi. 

Mixing and cooking the flour.

Added the florets just before the simmering

Simmer, my pretties!

This blog is giving our processor a workout.

After puree and addition of cream.

 The recipes called for cream, before pureeing.  The problem with that is that if the soup is too thin, which you probably can't tell until you puree it, then you cant really thicken it up by simmering.  Cream doesn't take well to simmering.

Kiss the cheese with the broiler

The cheese was good as a garnish.  Added nice flavor and a messy texture, which is kind of soul-warming.  Both of us were wary of making a straight-up "cheese soup," which always just seemed like a fancy way of saying "queso with broccoli."

We're thinking next time we do this, if we do it again, we'll roast the broccoli first.  Roasted broccoli has become our favorite way to prepare broccoli, and we know the roasting process will add a more intense layer of flavor.