Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Adventures in Cheese and other yummy things.

For the past three weeks I have been wishing to create a Broccoli Cheddar Soup, having spent a tiny fortune at Panera Bread eating their concoction.  It is delish!   So I looked on the internet and found several "copies" and somewhat "award" winning recipes.  Then, I opened up my hardback American and French Cookbooks.   (Choosing among recipes from Ina Garten, Alton Brown, and The Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond, as well as French Chefs Alain Ducasse, Jacques Pepin, and Georges Perrier... simply took the best of them into a new "receipe." )

Basically, Ree Drummond includes a can of cream of celery in one of her three versions of the soup, Georges Perrier insists on a classic roux, and Jacques Pepin and Alain Ducasse favor adding a base of chicken or vegetable broth.  Alton, though not often favoring Velveta, has been known to include it in some of his recipes, though I can find no Broccoli Cheddar Soup recipe in which he suggests the use of Velveta.  Ina Garten, known for chicken cooked a 100 different ways, has inspired me to keep on hand small and large portions of homemade chicken stock... stock, not broth.  Stock is from bones, broth is from meat.

Wishing only to create a small test portion, I chopped a small, even, amount of carrots, onion, and the stalk only of a broccoli head, reserving the florets.  Sweated the batch with butter (not margarine).  After the pan looked like a nice mirepoix (but with broccoli rather than celery), I added flour in the amount of about 1/5 to 1/7 of the volume of "mirepoix" in the pan.  Thoroughly cooked the flour in the pan which still contained a liberal amount of butter.  When dry and forming a good roux, I added heavy whipping cream and whole milk. (Had not half and half on hand.)  The amount of liquid was enough to make a thin paste, not soupy, more like a thick dip.  Then, a few minutes later (about 3 min.) I added the homemade chicken stock to create a runny soup.  Checked for taste using various herbs...added no salt.  Then added White Cheddar, (my sharp cheddar was used two nights previous) a bit of velveta for smoothness and to create golden yellow color.  Finally, I garnished with golden, mild cheddar and let it melt in the pan.  Stirred all that together, and then added two soup spoon sized portions of cream of celery soup.     Warmed all this and removed servings of soup for those who wanted extra thick soup. Added small florets which were cooked the previous evening. Then, once these individuals who desired super thick soup were served, more chicken stock was added to that remaining in the pot, creating a more fluid and pourable soup.

Result?  Two thumbs up, with individual preferences satisfied as one gracefully is allowed to adjust thickness of the soup while cooked.

Carrots,
Onion,
Stalk of Broccoli, reserving florets.
Stick of butter, first using about half of the butter, adding more if one chooses to make a roux with flour.
1/4 cup flour for the roux
(I tend to cook a lot of broccoli florets at one time, and put them up in a container about the size of a 5lb bag of flour....then I save the stalks... your order of events may be different, but the main thing is save the florets for later and use up that stalk now.)
1-2 cups of half and half, your preference
3 cups more or less of chicken stock
1/8 cup or 2 soup spoon sized dollops of cream of celery soup
White Cheddar Type Cheese ... I used Irish Dubliner, add volume to taste
4 Slices of Velveta Cheese more or less, to your taste
Garnished with mild cheddar cheese (as that was what was on hand.)

Touch of Garlic
Touch of Nutmeg
Bay Leaf if you're cooking thin,
but remember to remove it after cooking
soft salt such as Himalayan, or Celtic type salts, or
any salt low in sodium but higher in calcium and magnesium.
Regular Table salt is high in sodium, with Kosher
salt having similar compounds, but formed in flakes.

That's the "recipe" ... Bonne Chance!