Cool Days call for Soup – Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Living in New England means we get to experience all four seasons, I love when the change of seasons happens and by the end I am totally ready for the next season.  I am so excited for the approach of fall that maybe I have jumped the gun and started making soup a little earlier than the normal person.  I normally cook with either the kids or Mr. Insanity in mind, but for my lunches I enjoy just preparing meals for myself, and that means fun salads in the summer and spring and lots of soups for the fall and winter.  I love how one pot of soup will provide me with a weeks worth of lunches that can be put in a thermos and be eaten in the car!One of my favorite parts of this particular soup is that it celebrates frugality.  I make broccoli at least once a week for dinner and I trim the stalks off of the florets and just serve the florets but am left with the stalks.  Instead of throwing these away, I pop them into a ziplock and freeze them.  For about a month I add to that bag until I have enough broccoli ready for soup!  Whenever I make this soup I feel like I am somehow cheating the system.  Now, lets get to this soup!

I begin by defrosting my broccoli.  You can use fresh broccoli in this, or buy frozen broccoli at the store,  I am using one pound of my “free” broccoli and a half a pound of store bought frozen broccoli today. I just pop these in the fridge before I go to bed and am ready to make soup the next day.

I start the soup by roughly chopping an onion.

Then onto a carrot.

I melt a little butter in a big soup pot and add my onion and carrot in.  I saute these for a bit and then add most of my broccoli. I keep a little bit of my broccoli aside to add later.

I cook this for a few more minutes and then add chicken stock.  I just have chicken stock on hand, but vegetable stock would work awesome in this soup!

I add some salt and pepper and just let this simmer for twenty minutes.  While my soup is simmering I cut most of the remaining broccoli into small pieces, while I am doing this I put some of the cute little florets to the side to use as a garnish.

After the soup has simmered for twenty minutes its time to blend it.  An immersion blender would be awesome for this (Hint Hint, Mr. Insanity) but if you don’t have one, like me, a few batches in the blender works just fine.

After about a minute I have a creamy looking texture.

I add this back to the pot over a low heat.  I add some cream, this adds such a nice texture and flavor to the soup.  While the cream and soup simmer together for a minute or two, I shred some cheddar cheese.

You can use the pre-shredded cheese, but I really prefer shredding it myself.  I think the flavor is just stronger with the fresh stuff, and this being a frugal soup, the block of cheese is cheaper. Anyway, that gets stirred in.

Along with my reserved bits of broccoli.

And we have soup!  Taste it and see if it needs any more salt or pepper then you can serve. I like to use the little florets and a little extra cheese to make it look pretty.  As my grandmother always told me “You eat with your eyes first”