Broccoli Soup For Two

I wanted to make a soup to counter act the cold weather, but since I am often home alone or left with my sister. I decided to make a very small amount so it doesn't go bad because there would be no one to eat is.

I got my recipe offline from the taste of home website

Recipe Ingredients

• 1/4 cup chopped sweet onion
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 cups fresh broccoli florets
• 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
• Dash pepper
• 3/4 cup 2% milk
• 2/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• My additions to the recipe were
•  a pinch of : salt, nutmeg, and crushed red chili flakes and  a teaspoon of butter
• Using a mix of Monterray jack and Parmesan cheese instead of cheddar

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/broccoli-cheese-soup-for-2

Preparation:

I placed a teaspoon of butter in to my sauce pot and let it melt.

I then added the dicd onions and let them cook until soft but colourless.

Add minced garlic and allow garlic to soften as well. Stir so it doesn't burn because garlic burns very quickly.

Once the garlic has softened enough that you can easily mash it with our spoon. Next add the flour mix in immediately and fast making sue to watch the sides of the pot that all the flour is incorporated in to the mix.

The flour acts as an additional thickener to the soup. The flour forms a roux with the butter. A roux is a cooked paste made of fat and flour, used to thicken something. This is a white roux because I didn't allow i  brown and cook for too long.

Next add in the the chicken stock, slowly but whisk quickly so no lumps form from the roux not mixing in properly. Now allow to come up to a boil,

Once Boiling, now add the broccoli and mix

I then now added Ground black pepper and dried thyme as well as freshly ground nutmeg, salt, and crushed red chilli flakes

 All the soup to come up to a boil again and the add milk. Allow to simmer and at this point broccoli should be soft enough to blend

Pour mix into blender. If Blender does not have a vented lid remove lid center. This allows the pressure that is built up to be released other wise the mix will explode because the mix is still hot. Cover the top with a clean rag or towel and blend on low speed to begin to break down the broccoli and then on high until  smooth.

  

 If you have a blender like mine. I  found that he closest thing to actual staged settings was you to chop for a few seconds ans then puree the mix, and then liqueify the mix until smooth.

Although this is pureed and does thicken some because of this it is still considered to be a cream soup which are soups thickened with roux, beurre manié (an uncooked at and flour mix) or other added thickening agents, plus milk and/or cream. So it needs be put back in the pan allowed to to simmer. The soup thickens considerably after this  as seen that when I ran a line on the back of my spoon it didn' close up.

Lastly I added 3/4 of my cheese and mixed it well into my soup  and i is complete and the whole thing took about 40 minutes to start to finish.

Garnish at bowl with the remainder of cheese. The recipe makes about 500mL or 2 cups of soup


Overview:

The soup overall had a nice feel and texture. The colour was a pale green. It smelled like broccoli. The soup on its own is slightly bland bu with the addition of the cheese garnish it was much better and the flavours of nutmeg and thyme were more pronounced. The flavour of the broccoli wasn't overwhelming.

I got my sister to taste it as well she stated that it lacked flavour but she agreed that he cheese brought the other milder flavours out from under he broccoli

My biggest challenge was following the recipe. I had been looking specifically for a recipe for broccoli soup and I found many different ones but I chose this one because of its size and I was able to make a small portion sized. But I found the recipe needed more flavour that I feel like the mirepoix usually offers. It may be because I haven't developed my palate for simpler foods but I found it lacking even after my additions. Besides this I feel like my soup was success and I feel ,ore open to trying new things because this is my first time ever making this soup. I will apply my knowledge of making a soup to everyday things like making sauces and when ever I need to thicken liquids.