Slight drop in temps summons Soup Night and Slow Cooker Broccoli-Cheddar

Soup Night in the middle of August? Yes ma’am/sir, we had one of those. A few days ago we experienced a brief break from our outdoor ovenlike temps, with a slight nip of fall in the air—a promise that we won’t always be roasting. Seemed like a good prompt for some slow-cooker soup.

I got a great recipe from a magazine ad by cabotcheese.coop; it featured the most gorgeous photo of Slow Cooker Broccoli-Cheddar Soup. I grabbed some fresh broccoli from the grocery and got these ingredients stuffed into my crockpot in a flash.

The outcome was major-delicious. A few days ago soup would have just added to the misery everyone felt from the sweatbox outdoors, but on this little jewel of a cooler day, dropped into the middle of a heatwave, it was a perfect dinner item.

Back-to-school’s on Monday; can a little bit of autumn be very far away?

Slow Cooker Broccoli-Cheddar Soup

2 tablespoons salted butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 (14.5-ounce) cans chicken broth (or homemade chicken broth)

2 cups peeled and diced boiling potatoes

3 cups broccoli (chopped florets and thinly sliced stems)

1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk

12 ounces sharp cheddar, grated (about 3 cups)

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

ground black pepper to taste 

In a large skillet over medium-high heat melt butter. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until tender and starting to brown, about 3 minutes. Stir in flour and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds longer. Gradually whisk in 1 can broth and stir until mixture is simmering and thickened. Transfer onion mixture to slow cooker. Add potatoes and remaining can of broth; stir to combine. Cover and cook on high setting for 2 hours or until mixture starts to simmer. Stir in broccoli and evaporated milk. Cover and cook 30 minutes longer or until broccoli is tender. Add cheese and stir until it is melted. Stir in lemon juice; season with pepper. Makes 6 servings. (Source: Southern Living January 2012 advertisement—in the recipe, Cabot brands are recommended)

Broccoli, celery, et al. keep winter-soup recipe file expanding

We are in a soup rut, but it's a good soup rut. Frozen temps, closed-down city, traffic at a snail's crawl on the roads—yesterday was Snow Storm Redux in our town, as it was in many other places as well. Fresh broccoli was in the fridge and needed to make its way into something healthy.

Any more, however, we also don't make light of the prosaic stalk of celery and its health benefits as well. Hubby recently read about how celery is super for its ability to drive down blood pressure. Since managing the BP sometimes is a challenge for him, he's started adding celery wherever possible—even into his famous smoothies! (Doesn't taste bad at all; surrounded by so much fruit and yogurt and nuts, it's hardly recognizable in a smoothie drink.) Celery's apparent cancer-fighting properties boost its popularity as a health-filled add-in.

So with broccoli, celery, corn kernels, and onion on hand, we were ready to roll. No reduced-sodium chicken broth on the pantry shelf, so I simply covered some uncooked chicken breasts in a pan of water and let them boil for 20-25 minutes until the breasts no longer were pink and I had a nice supply of fresh broth ready for my soup. Much better choice than the canned broth (even the lowered-sodium kind) anyway. Plus now I have some cooked chicken bits reserved when I need them for a casserole.

To make a long story short, we had another wonderful soup night. Adding the Cheddar cheese to the thickened soup base made it creamy, cheesy, and great.

Texas may never again have another Arctic season like this one has been, but next year if we spend a lot of time fraternizing with snowflakes, as least my healthy soup-recipe file will be ready.

Creamy Broccoli Soup

3 cups fresh broccoli, chopped

1/2 cup celery, diced

1/2 cup onion, diced

1/2 cup fresh corn kernels

2 cups chicken broth, reduced sodium (or make your own)

4 cups skim milk

1/4 cup cornstarch

pinch salt (or salt substitute)

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 cup Cheddar cheese, reduced fat, shredded

cayenne pepper to taste

In a large sauce pan place vegetables and broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until vegetables are tender. In a small bowl mix milk, cornstarch, salt, and pepper. Add milk mixture to vegetables and heat on medium high heat. Stir until soup is lightly thickened and begins to boil. Remove from heat. Add cheese and stir until melted. Add cayenne if desired. Makes 6 1-cup servings.

Flexing netted a great (substitute) broccoli/carrot/cheese soup recipe

Flexibility—that great byword that characterizes most missionaries and lots of other exemplary folk—is not in my constitution. As I've mentioned before, give me LOTS of warning before you switch gears on me. And when recipes are involved, if I've picked one to feature in my blog, I've picked it—as well as the date and the occasion for which I'll prepare it. It's set in stone!

So I was zooming along gathering ingredients for a broccoli-carrot-cheese soup recipe. The recipe of choice was satisfactory enough and had lain in my "untried" section for several years. I was tearing into the package of fresh broccoli crowns when I saw it printed on the back—the recipe of my dreams for creamy broccoli soup. It contained the broccoli, carrots, and onion that I had on hand already; what's more, it already had all the substitutions made for me—low-sodium chicken broth, skim milk, salt substitute—without my having to desperately hope that my "subs" would work out OK.

Well, this was a no-brainer. My old plans had to go to make room for Creamy Broccoli Soup, whose recipe appeared on the package. Thank you, Kroger, for featuring this healthy version on your brand of broccoli crowns.

The result was the soup of my dreams, plus I just had to toss in a little cheddar cheese to give that creamy sauce a cheese-y taste. See, I can flex and do so on my own! Hubby said it was his favorite broccoli soup ever. We kept dividing the leftovers in half and dividing them again to make it stretch for as long as possible.

And my old recipe? I've tossed it. Nothing like the healthy version that was dropped in my lap, just as I was about to prepare the former one. Must have been meant to be.

Creamy Broccoli Soup

4 cups broccoli florets

2 cups water

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1 cup celery, chopped

1 cup carrots, chopped

1/2 cup yellow onion, chopped

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

6 tablespoons flour

3 cups chicken broth, low-sodium (may substitute vegetable broth)

2 cups skim milk

1 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 1/2 cups low-fat shredded cheese (optional)

In large pot bring water and onion powder to boil and add broccoli, celery, and carrots. Bring to a boil, drain, and set aside. Saute onions in butter until tender. Stir in flour to form a smooth paste Slowly add broth and milk. Stir constantly. Bring to a boil. Let boil for 1 minute; add vegetables and remaining ingredients. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until tender. Remove from heat. Add 1 1/2 cups low-fat shredded cheddar cheese, if desired. Stir until melted. Can be prepared 4 hours in advance. Makes 4 servings.