Broccoli Souperstar…

I guess that spoiler ridden TV fanboy rubbish from todays earlier post was pretty inaccessible for most of my readers, so how about I share a recipe with you? Ok.

We live pretty close to Eden Park, it’s just up the road, really… And as there was a Lions vs. Auckland rugby game on there last night we knew that traffic would be completely bloody horrible, so I told Claire that I’d make dinner for her, and head out to the market in the afternoon, so we wouldn’t have to try to travel on the roads in the evening (it can be really unpleasant, even on normal game nights).

So, I made broccoli soup, and it was good.

The Fixin’s

  • 2 medium onions.
  • 2 large taters.
  • 2 heads of broccoli.
  • Chicken stock / Oxo.
  • Wedge (or two) of blue cheese.
  • Grated cheese, 1 – 2 cups.
  • A little milk.
  • Salt & pepper, to taste.

That’ll make a lot of soup, enough for probably 5 or 6 people as a main, so you can make it with one onion, one tater & one head of broccoli very easily.

The Method

Chop the onions, not too small, maybe quarters, do the same to the taters, if you’re using smaller taters don’t chop or only halve them, you don’t want them to fall apart, so don’t make them small.

Strip any remaining leaves from the stalk of the broccoli, and cut off the dry tip, then just chop it all up (quite big) and drop it in a big pot with the other vegies.

Now pour in a couple of cups of chicken stock, or crumble two Oxo cubes over the vegies, then fill the pot with water, this is going to have to be a really (!) big pot, I used my awesome Chasseur 36, and it was really full once the water was in there.

Bring to the boil, and leave it on a nice boil with the lid on for a good hour, stir it every now and then, you should have any problems with sticking, but it’s best to be safe. Take the lid off after about 60 minutes and leave it on the boil, it needs to reduce a fair bit now, and will take at least 30 and probably 45 minutes, it’ll be right down to about half full when it’s time, just make sure there’s still some fluid left, but it’s going to be below the level of the vegies now.

Remove from the heat and allow it to cool for 5 or 10 minutes, you can now either start moving it in batches to a blender — that would be if you’re crazy — or you can whip out your stick blender and cream the whole thing up, add a bit of milk, it should be thick but nice and smooth. Once you’re happy with the consistency, open your wedge of blue cheese and crumble the whole thing into little bits sprinkled throughout the soup, one wedge should be great if you’re making a smaller batch, if I was to make another big one I’d probably use two full wedges, the cheese will melt nicely as you stir it through the still hot soup. Add a bunch of grated cheese as well, I guess we used about a cup and a half or two cups. Season it to taste with salt & pepper.

The Conclusion

As you can see it’s a very simple recipe which is really flexible, it’s also extremely filling and tasty — I couldn’t even finish a single (quite big) bowl, now I don’t know if I’ve told you the story, but I once ate not one but TWO "Diagnosis: Chronic Heart Disease" sandwiches for lunch!

Oh, definitely don’t cut out the blue cheese, unless you like extremely gentle flavours, you’ll really want the delicious tang of the blue cheese.