Speaking Jackanese: Healthy Broccoli (not-so-cheesy) Soup!

If you know me, you likely know how much I love my immersion blender. If you like soups- get one. It will change your world.

This is a pretty picture of mine that I graciously borrowed from the Wal-Mart website.

I started planning to make this soup a cheesy broccoli wonder because, well, I literally had 2 huge bunches and a gallon baggie full of broccoli. (in a weird turn of events- thank you mom and thank you Bountiful Baskets) I ended up making this delicious healthy creamy soup with very few ingreds- promptly placing it in a bread bowl with cheese on top (ok, those guys weren't too healthy) and it turned out fab. Since the batch was so big, we ate it two nights in a row. Delicious!

Here is the recipe:

Healthy Creamy Broccoli Soup

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

1 onion (I like white for this the best, but yellow will work fine)

1 head garlic- fresh

1 ton broccoli (I used 2 big bunches)

1 lb. carrots (I used matchstick carrots because they were the same price as regs and I felt lazy)

Chicken stock or bullion

Salt

Pepper

milk

water

Shredded cheese (cheddar or monterrey jack) (optional)

green onion (optional)

First, get your garlic ready to roast. I love roasting garlic because it enhances the flavor, but makes the garlic not quite as strong. I like to do this by chopping off the whole top of the head of garlic, drizzling in a little olive oil, and sprinkling with salt. Wrap this little bundle in some tin foil and pop in the oven at 450 for 25-30 minutes (until you squeeze it and it feels a little squishy) If you would rather saute your garlic with your onion, feel free. If you would rather peel each clove of garlic before roasting, go ahead. I just hate it when my hands smell super garlic-y and this tends to be the case if I deal with it too much while it's raw.

Next, heat 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil in large pot. Chop onion (doesn't have to be tiny, see picture below) and add to olive oil. Saute onion on medium heat while you chop up other ingredients.

Chop carrots (if you aren't using matchstick) and broccoli. This doesn't have to be uniform, it doesn't have to be pretty. I use a portion of the stalk of broccoli- you don't taste it in the soup and it makes it bulkier. I experimented and used my chopper to chop the broccoli- bad idea! All of the little broccoli guys got caught down in the chopper grates and I had to pry it out of the bottom. Lesson learned.

After onion is sautéed, (slightly translucent white), throw in all your veggies. At this point you have some options. I always add some chicken bullion cubes (4-6 for a large pot) for flavoring and cover my veggies with water. This time, I added probably 5-6 C. water and 1 C. skim milk (it makes it a little bit creamier), but really, you'd be fine with just water. (especially if you're using an immersion blender) Season with salt and pepper (I prefer fresh ground- it really is more flavorful), cover, and simmer on medium-ish heat for 30 minutes or so. At this point, you can make whatever side dish you are wanting to serve with the soup. (in my case it was fruit with fruit dip)

Check on your garlic- don't forget it's roasting. The garlic isn't anything scientific- when you squeeze that little pouch you can tell if it's soft. If it's soft at this point, take it out and unwrap it. Let it cool down for a while now so you can touch it later.

After your veggies have simmered away (simmer until you can poke them with a fork and they're cooked thoroughly) take them off the heat and it's time to blend! You'll need to add your garlic at this point. The benefit of roasting the garlic head whole is that you can just sort of pop/squish the garlic cloves out and into the soup directly. Don't worry if they're huge- that's what the immersion blender is for. If you're doing this is a regular blender, be careful, the soup is hot and you'll probably have to do it in batches. If you have an immersion blender, I usually transfer the soup to a large metal bowl that I have just for immersion blending. This way if I get a little carried away with blending, I'm not scratching up my non-stick finish in my pot! Blend away! You'll see that the soup expands a little bit and get sort of frothy looking. This is where the false creaminess comes from!

I had planned on adding a bunch of shredded cheese at this point and making it a cheddar broccoli soup, but after I tasted it, I thought it was perfect! We love bread bowls around this joint, so I scooped out the insides and filled 'em up with the soup. I topped them with a little shredded cheese and some chopped green onion and threw them whole thing under the broiler for 2-3 minutes. (until things are lightly toasted and brown) This toasted the bread I had scooped out form the bread bowls, melted the cheese, and just gave everything that finishing touch.

Enjoy!