Creamy Broccoli and Cheddar Soup (ATK)

• doses: 6

Ingredientes

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 1/2 pounds broccoli, stems peeled and sliced into 1/2-inch pieces, florets chopped into ½-inch pieces

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 cup heavy cream

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 cups shredded mild cheddar cheese, plus extra for garnish

Salt and cayenne pepper

Instruções

1. Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Add onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add broccoli stems and cook until bright green and just beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in broth, increase heat to medium-high, and simmer until stems are tender, about 5 minutes. Add florets, cream, and nutmeg and simmer until florets are tender, about 5 minutes.

2. Puree soup in 2 batches in blender until smooth, return to pot, and bring to simmer over medium heat. Stir in cheddar until melted and season with salt and cayenne pepper. Serve, garnished with extra cheese. (Soup can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. Reheat over medium heat until hot, but do not boil or cheese will separate.)

Notas

Creamy Broccoli and Cheddar Soup Cheddar cheese adds plenty of flavor, but how do you make the broccoli more than just green filler?

Cheddar broccoli soup is old-fashioned comfort food. But for something so simple (basically broccoli, chicken broth, cream, and cheese), a lot can go wrong. Many recipes yield either a gloppy, glorified cheese sauce or a mealy mess of bland, gray vegetables. I wanted a creamy soup that tasted like fresh, bright-green broccoli. Since this soup is almost always pureed, I wondered if I could include the fibrous stems for flavor. I made what amounted to a broccoli stock by sautéing broccoli stems with onion and garlic and then adding chicken broth and cooking the stock until the stems were soft. It was only then that I added the broccoli florets and cream; this ensured that the florets didn't overcook and retained their bright color and fresh flavor. I kept increasing the amount of broccoli until I was using 1/2 pounds (twice as much as many recipes) for just six bowis of soup. The soup was so thick from the broccoli and cheddar (added at the end to keep it from separating and clumping) that I didn't need to thicken the soup with flour or cornstarch.

-Bridget Lancaster

Taste the soup before adding any salt; both the cheese and the chicken broth can be quite salty.