#chefali

It’s winter time and Perth’s getting too cold for my liking. Last weekend, I went shopping for the week’s groceries and bought 2 bunches of broccoli cause they were so cheap! I didn’t know what to do with them cause I’ve never actually cooked broccolis before. 

After googling for ideas, I chanced upon this recipe, altered it and officially created my favorite soup of all time. 

Before we begin, for those who don’t know - this is a floret. The top parts of the broccoli. You’ll need to know this before looking through the recipe. Think flower. Think floret. Easy.

Cream Of Broccoli (with cheese)

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter

2 big fresh broccolis (About 500g of florets - exclude stem)

2 medium onions, diced

2 carrots, sliced into round discs

Salt and ground black pepper

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

4 cups (1L) chicken broth

1 cup of milk or 1/2 cup cream

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in pot over medium heat.

Add onions and carrots. Saute until onions turn translucent, about 6 minutes. 

Add salt and pepper.

Add the flour (do not need to sieve), and cook for a minute, until the flour turns a blonde colour. 

Add chicken broth and bring to boil. 

Reduce to a simmer and add broccoli. Simmer without the lid until broccoli is tender (approx. 15 minutes)

Using a fork, pick out the softened broccoli and 5 tablespoons of soup. Place the broccoli and 5 tbps soup into a food processor/blender. Blend 5-10 seconds or until desired consistency. Leave the rest of the soup to simmer. 

Return the blended pulp into the pot of soup, pour in milk and cheese. Stir to combine all the ingredients. After cheese has melted, serve hot. 

Homemade Croutons

Ingredients

Light Rye bread (Use any bread you want but I’d not recommend white bread + I love the taste of light rye)

Butter, cut into 1x1 cm cubes

Parmesan (shredded) or Swiss cheese (grated)

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. 

Place baking sheet on a metal tray. 

Tear the bread into bite-size pieces of about the same size and lay them out evenly on the baking sheet.

Place 1 cube of butter on each piece of bread. 

Sprinkle cheese generously over the bread pieces.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until sides of bread pieces turn golden brown. 

Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before serving. 

I’m on my second bowl right now. Too damn delicious.