There are reasons why kiddoes don't like cream of vegetable soups.
The other day I was flipping through the Moosewood cookbook trying to choose the next recipe to try and happened upon Cream of Broccoli Soup. It looked delicious! The pictures of the broccoli was so appetizing!
I said to R., said I, "I think I will cook the Cream of Broccoli Soup!"
She turned to me and said, "You are engaged."
Says I, "I know! Aren't you glad I'm learning to cook?"
She looks at me like I am crazy. "Do you really expect your husband to eat cream of broccoli soup?"
"Well yes," says I, but I know she's got a point.
"Maybe you should start cooking towards your fiance instead of away from him," she tells me.
I decide to make the Cream of Broccoli soup after all. From the Moosewood, I present:
Ingredients:
4 T. butter
1 1/2 C chopped oniom
1 medium green pepper, chopped
4 C chopped broccoli
1 C broccoli flowerets, thinly-sliced
1 tsp. salt (more, to taste)
2 1/2 C water or stock
2 C milk
1/2 C heavy or sour cream
1 bay leaf
pinch of allspice
black and/or white pepper to taste
dash of tamari
dash of thyme or basil (optional to taste)
optional: 1/2 C buttermilk, whisked in right before serving
Note: I used water, sour cream, and basil, black pepper, and omitted the tamari. I added dried mustard and paprika in its place, and added allspice generously.
Directions:
1. Chop up broccoli, flowerets, onion, pepper. You can chop the scallions while the broccoli cooks.
2. Saute the onions in butter with bay leaf (don't forget to remove the bay leaf before pureeing!) until the onions are translucent.
3. Add the chopped green pepper, chopped broccoli, water or stock, and salt. Cook about 10 minutes, covered (until broccoli in tender, but still bright green.)
4. Puree little by little with milk, in the blender. Make sure its pureed until absolutely smooth. (The texture is very important to the success of this soup.)
5. Whisk in the sour cream or heavy cream and the seasonings. Adjust the salt and pepper, if necessary. Steam the broccoli flowerets (do this while sauteeing everything else, duh!) until just done (again, tender, but full of color.)
6. Combine flowerets with soup in a large double boiler or kettle. Heat gently and serve right away. Whisk in the optional buttermilk as you serve. Top it with minced scallions.
Notes:
1. After I blended everything, I poured it all back into the ginormous skillet to season/whisk/warm. It makes so much more sense to do that in the pan than in the blender, don't you think?
2. I found this soup to be way, way, way too thin. Do people really want to drink broccoli-flavored water? So I boiled it for another 20 minutes or so after blending and seasoning, and would have been happy having thickened it another 10 minutes maybe.
3. In the future, I will boil it to thicken it and then add the buttermilk and scallions AFTER the thickening, to avoid funny boiled buttermilkness.
4. This soup is tasty if you are a rabbit. No really, the sour cream and milk and spices and broccoli taste really are quite satisfying! Especially if eaten with fresh chunks of Mom's cornbread dunked in the soup, which is how I ate my first bowl.
5. This will probably not feed the fiance, who (unlike me) is not a rabbit.
The other day I was flipping through the Moosewood cookbook trying to choose the next recipe to try and happened upon Cream of Broccoli Soup. It looked delicious! The pictures of the broccoli was so appetizing!
I said to R., said I, "I think I will cook the Cream of Broccoli Soup!"
She turned to me and said, "You are engaged."
Says I, "I know! Aren't you glad I'm learning to cook?"
She looks at me like I am crazy. "Do you really expect your husband to eat cream of broccoli soup?"
"Well yes," says I, but I know she's got a point.
"Maybe you should start cooking towards your fiance instead of away from him," she tells me.
I decide to make the Cream of Broccoli soup after all. From the Moosewood, I present:
Ingredients:
4 T. butter
1 1/2 C chopped oniom
1 medium green pepper, chopped
4 C chopped broccoli
1 C broccoli flowerets, thinly-sliced
1 tsp. salt (more, to taste)
2 1/2 C water or stock
2 C milk
1/2 C heavy or sour cream
1 bay leaf
pinch of allspice
black and/or white pepper to taste
dash of tamari
dash of thyme or basil (optional to taste)
optional: 1/2 C buttermilk, whisked in right before serving
Note: I used water, sour cream, and basil, black pepper, and omitted the tamari. I added dried mustard and paprika in its place, and added allspice generously.
Directions:
1. Chop up broccoli, flowerets, onion, pepper. You can chop the scallions while the broccoli cooks.
2. Saute the onions in butter with bay leaf (don't forget to remove the bay leaf before pureeing!) until the onions are translucent.
3. Add the chopped green pepper, chopped broccoli, water or stock, and salt. Cook about 10 minutes, covered (until broccoli in tender, but still bright green.)
4. Puree little by little with milk, in the blender. Make sure its pureed until absolutely smooth. (The texture is very important to the success of this soup.)
5. Whisk in the sour cream or heavy cream and the seasonings. Adjust the salt and pepper, if necessary. Steam the broccoli flowerets (do this while sauteeing everything else, duh!) until just done (again, tender, but full of color.)
6. Combine flowerets with soup in a large double boiler or kettle. Heat gently and serve right away. Whisk in the optional buttermilk as you serve. Top it with minced scallions.
Notes:
1. After I blended everything, I poured it all back into the ginormous skillet to season/whisk/warm. It makes so much more sense to do that in the pan than in the blender, don't you think?
2. I found this soup to be way, way, way too thin. Do people really want to drink broccoli-flavored water? So I boiled it for another 20 minutes or so after blending and seasoning, and would have been happy having thickened it another 10 minutes maybe.
3. In the future, I will boil it to thicken it and then add the buttermilk and scallions AFTER the thickening, to avoid funny boiled buttermilkness.
4. This soup is tasty if you are a rabbit. No really, the sour cream and milk and spices and broccoli taste really are quite satisfying! Especially if eaten with fresh chunks of Mom's cornbread dunked in the soup, which is how I ate my first bowl.
5. This will probably not feed the fiance, who (unlike me) is not a rabbit.
