<p>Does anyone have a tried and true Cream of Broccoli soup recipe to share? I need one that does not have a chicken stock base. Thanks!</p>
<p>Why not chicken stock? You could use as the base 1/2 milk, 1/2 cream (I use light cream), butter , celery, grated carrot, finely chopped broccoli put in at the last minute. YOu know, use a milk based chowder rather than chick stock. But without the chicken stock it may taste bland.</p>
<p>When I first started to amke a chowder I was positively shocked at how much cream goes into these soups. Heart attack in a bowl. But they are all natural and taste really nice with a bagette. Just don’t serve too much! I also found my kids did not like it too much becasue it was too rich and they were not used to such rich food. </p>
<p>YOu could use a fish stock in the base, a bottle of clam juice, or experiment with some herbs in the stock.</p>
<p>3/4 cup chopped onion
1 carrot, sliced thin
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 pound broccoli, chopped coarse (about 3 1/2 cups)
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste
1/4 cup sour cream</p>
<p>In a heavy saucepan cook the onion, the carrot, the mustard seeds, and salt and pepper to taste in the butter over moderate heat, stirring, until the onion is soft, add the broccoli, the broth, and the water, and simmer the mixture, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the broccoli is very tender. In a blender purée the soup in batches until it is smooth, transferring it as it is puréed to another heavy saucepan. Whisk in the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste, heat the soup over moderately low heat, and whisk in the sour cream (do not let the soup boil).</p>
<p>If you can’t use chicken stock, use vegetable stock. They sell it in the store next to chicken broth.</p>
<p>If you need a broccoli CHEESE soup recipe, I have a to-die-for one…simple, but simply unbelievable! No chicken stock involved…</p>
<p>Post it please berurah…I love broccoli cheese soup and my recipe is not simple.</p>
<p>I mostly cook recipes that are healthy and light, but this is NOT one of them. <em>lol</em> It is a recipe I use more rarely because it is so rich, but OMG, it is totally amazing!</p>
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<p>Thank you berurah…now I know what I am having for supper on Tuesday when the babbygirl gets home for Thanksgiving!!! She will love it!!</p>
<p>abbybabby~</p>
<p>My girls LOVE this recipe, and in fact, my oldest has learned to make it, so she’s generally in charge of it now! :)</p>
<p>I don’t know how big your family is, but this recipe can be doubled (we do it), but it is difficult to find a double boiler big enough to accomodate it. It <em>can</em> be made w/o one, but requires almost constant stirring and watching if you use a regular pot. I hope your D enjoys it as much as mine do!! </p>
<p>~b.</p>
<p>That sounds good Berurah!</p>
<p>I’m looking for a cheese and Guinness soup recipe. Any ideas?</p>
<p>Berurah - Yum … sounds great! My daughter will flip for that - have to try it.</p>
<p>Backhandgrip - One of my Thanksgiving guests is vegetarian; thus, no chicken stock.</p>
<p>b4nnd20 - I may try that one for Thanksgiving! Thanks!</p>
<p>Weenie, try this?
<a href=“http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/231641[/url]”>http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/231641</a></p>
<p>Thanks b4! My son gives it the thumbs up. Now if he were only old enough to go buy the stout… ;)</p>
<p>I made a great asparagus cream soup once with some left over spargel. It was really complex:</p>
<p>Cook the cut up asparagus in chicken stock. Throw it in the blender and puree.</p>
<p>Done.</p>
<p>You could do something similar with brocolli, starting with water if you wanted a vegan version, but save the florets for a garnish. And if you wanted it thicker, you could use some cooced potato. It’s an old standby for soup thickening. And you could add some onion for a bit more flavor.</p>
<p>Season to taste and add the florets.</p>
<p>If you wanted to add some color to the soup, add some chopped cooked carrots. I personally think the orange of carrots looks very nice in all sorts of veggie soups, from bean to brocolli (or asparagus to zucchini?)</p>
<p>Newmassdad - Thank you! Who knew that you were a chef? ;)</p>
<p>twinmom, </p>
<p>My wife and daugher know! It’s interesting how little we use pre-prepared foods at home, because we’ve found that most convenience items don’t really save you much time, but they do cost you flavor. Bisquick? Yea, right. How long does it take to measure out baking powder? Buttermilk? (once you start cooking from scratch, things like buttermilk become staples in the fridge. BTW, it last waaaay beyond the label expiration date.)</p>
<p>You should see my tomato soup recipe:</p>
<p>Seed the tomatoes. Cook in chicken stock or water (suppose you could use milk for a creamier soup?). Puree in the blender. Season to taste. Enjoy. I make this in August when we buy too many tomatoes when I make sauce for the fall. It is amazing how good it tastes and how fast it is.</p>
<p>I should add that for any of these veggie soups, buttermilk is a great flavor enhancer. But you can’t heat the soup too much after adding the buttermilk, as it curdles very easily. I find the curdling ironic, since buttermilk is close to curdled milk to begin with. maybe that’s why (like how the heat of hot coffee curdles cream that’s on the edge?)</p>
<p>Enjoy. And remember simplicity.</p>
<p>Sounds yummy. My daughter seems to be newly vegetarian (at least I think so)… so if you have any more interesting and easy dinner recipes, do share!</p>
<p>twinmom,</p>
<p>Two of our favorite “we don’t want to cook” meals involve pasta. Try shells, spirelli and such for variety. </p>
<p>First is a a quick sour cream sauce: melt some butter. Take a clove or two of garlic, run through the garlic press (or finely chop?) and briefly saute the garlic in the butter. We often do this right in the serving dish in the microwave. Add some ground oregano to taste, then a few tablespoons to half cup of sour cream. Mix in with the butter as you gently warm. It does not want to mix much. About this time the pasta is getting done, so drain the pasta, and mix enough for maybe three servings with the sauce. If the combo is too cool when you mix them, nuke for a bit. Serve with parmesan cheese.</p>
<p>The other uses frozen veggies. We use the cauliflower, brocolli carrot mixes, and also the brocc/carrot/water chestnut mixes. While the pasta cooks, thaw the veggies in the microwave. Next, saute them in olive oil with garlic for a few minutes. Since frozen veggies are blanched before freezing, they are already cooked (if you like your veggies a bit firm when you eat like we do), so you only need to saute for a few minutes to make sure they’re all warm. I like a very hot skillet so they actually brown a bit. Serve on the pasta with parmesan cheese. You will find that this tastes good even without a dripping sauce, so don’t overdo the oil. You can add pepper flakes if you want a bit of kick to it.</p>
<p>Either of these can be made in the amount of time it takes to boil the pasta. We often have leftover cold, as we’ll make a whole package for the two or three of us, depending on who is home. The dishes are even faster with cold pasta and a microwave.</p>
<p>Newmassdad - The first one sounds great. However, I’d have to have Lipitor for dessert. </p>
<p>I think I’ll try the second one this week … and see how my daughter likes it while the rest of us are eating leftover turkey!</p>
<p>Twinmom, you don’t need huge amounts of sour cream. If you want to cut calories, add a bit of milk, for example. FWIW, sour cream has 59 calories per ounce. If you used three ounces of sour cream (quite a bit, really) and a cup of pasta, you have a serving with 360 calories. A lot of pre-prepared “light” foods have more calories per serving for comparable sized portions. (many of them get the “light” label by cutting serving size!)</p>
<p>Here’s an example: Lean Cuisine Chicken Fettuccini</p>
<p>Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 Package (12 ounces)
Servings Per Package: 1
Amount Per Serving
Calories 390
Calories From Fat 70</p>
<p>Now, let’s look at the ingredients, my bolding added:</p>
<p>Ingredients:</p>
<p>Blanched fettuccini (water, semolina, wheat gluten), skim milk, apples (apples, water, apple juice, ascorbic acid, citric acid), cooked chicken tenderloins (chicken tenderloins, water, seasoning (contains yeast extract, sugar, flavors, salt, dehydrated garlic, maltodextrin, citric acid), isolated soy protein, modified rice starch, canola oil, sodium phosphates), broccoli, sugar, **caramel bits<a href=“sugar,%20corn%20syrup,%20liquid%20sugar,%20skim%20milk,%20palm%20oil,%20butter%20(cream,%20salt),%20salt,%20%5BB%5Dmono-%20and%20diglycerides,%20natural%20flavor,%20soy%20lecithin%5B/B%5D”>/B</a>, water, romano cheese ((made from cow’s milk), cultured milk, salt, enzymes), parmesan cheese (cultured milk, salt, enzymes), modified cornstarch, salt, brown sugar syrup, parmesan cheese paste (granular and parmesan cheese (cultured milk, salt, enzymes), water, salt, lactic acid, citric acid), canola oil, orange juice concentrate, bleached wheat flour, butterfat, whey protein concentrate, cream, cheese flavor (cheddar cheese (cultured milk, salt, enzymes), water, salt, enzymes, cultures, phosphoric acid, xanthan gum), spices, mono- and diglycerides, flavor (maltodextrin, flavoring and modified food starch), xanthan gum, natural flavor, yeast extract, seasoning (wheat starch, extracts of annatto and turmeric color, natural flavor).</p>
<p>Lots of thickeners, stabilizers and so forth. Yumm. Tasty!</p>