Broccoli Cheese Soup

Here's another from my book of favorites. I cooked it up as I watched ice hit the windows. A nice, hot, cheesy bowl of soup was just what the doctor ordered. Especially when I paired it with one of my family's favorite comfort foods, grilled cheese.



I begin by sauteing 1 cup of chopped onion with 2 cloves of garlic. For this recipe I just spray the bottom of my soup pot with a little non-stick cooking spray. Cuts down on fat and calories.

When the onion is tender, add chicken broth and broccoli. Once it reaches a boil, cook for 10 minutes. This recipe calls for broccoli florets. Make sure you get the florets, that way you avoid the fibrous strands that tend to hang out in the stalks. I was out of florets and didn't want to go to the store so you'll see stalks pictured below. Not wise. Every once in a while I got one of those hard, fibrous, stalk pieces in my soup.


Whisk the milk and flour until it's well blended.



Add the milk and flour to the broccoli and broth mixture. Stir in pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes, until slightly thickened. Stir it constantly or it will stick.


This picture makes me want to apologize for my beaten down looking old cookware and the haphazard way that I have those cooking utensils stored by the stove. Conveniently within reach. But since it says "everyday cooking" in my blog description...maybe I shouldn't apologize. After all, it doesn't say "cooking in my fancy, state of the art kitchen". Maybe I should just stop looking at these pictures. I didn't start to really dislike my Pfaltzgraff pattern until I started looking at pictures of it everyday on this blog. Okay....moving on... to Velveeta!

This family loves Velveeta. Obviously, not cheese connoisseurs. Velveeta isn't even a cheese. It's a pasteurized processed cheese food product which is what the FDA requires products with less than 51% cheese to be labelled.

3 cheers for Velveeta!
I cube mine before I toss it into the soup.


It melts so nicely!
Remove the soup from the heat and stir until the cheese is melted.


Now you should put 1/3 of the soup into a blender or food processor. This time, I put it all in because of those broccoli stalks. How do you like this food processor? It's from the 70's. My blender went out in a blaze of glory. The motor burned up. It actually smoked. Then, one of the key pieces of my food processor fell onto the heating element of my dishwasher. I've been at a little bit of a loss without these appliances in my kitchen. So, last weekend I sucked it up and did what any woman of my means and resources would have done... I borrowed my mom's. She's not using it anymore. Check it out, 30 plus years old and it still works great!


Now, just return the soup to the pot and dish it up.


Broccoli Cheese Soup

1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic
Saute for about 3 minutes
3 cups chicken broth
16 oz. broccoli florets
Add to the sauteed onion and garlic. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook for 10 minutes.

2 1/2 cups milk
1/3 cup of flour
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Whisk together until well blended. Pour into chicken broth/broccoli mixture, stirring constantly. Cook about 5 minutes, until slightly thickened.

8 oz. Light Velveeta, cubed
Remove from heat. Add Velveeta and stir until the "cheese" melts. Puree 1/3 of soup in a blender and return to the rest of the soup.

Makes 6- 1 1/3 cup servings.
203 calories per serving 6.3 g fat, 2.9 g fiber