It's January. In Chicago. I want all the soup. Especially soup that I can dump right into the crockpot and basically not touch again until it's time to eat. This is my love language.
I've tried a few Broccoli Cheddar soups on my own that just never made the cut. Even with loads of cheddar cheese added in, the color didn't look to par, or it fell flat in the flavor department. Then I decided to up my fiber factor and add in carrots and acorn squash. It worked. It's creamy, delicious, flavorful, super filling and it allowed me to cut down the amount of cheese so there is still a good sharp, cheddar flavor, and it has that great color to it, but it's not too heavy if you know what I mean. After I eat Broccoli Cheddar Soup, I want to not feel like I just maxed out on a pizza if you know what I mean ;)
I didn't take too many process photos since this is a crockpot, dump it all in, cook it down, blend it up and go recipe. But, that's basically what happened.
I cooked everything on low for about 6 hours, until it the broccoli, carrots and squash were soft, then I used a stick blender to blend it all up until smooth. You could blend half of the soup if you wanted it to be more chunky, but that's up to your and your preference. If you go that route, ensure you chop your carrots into small pieces so none of the bites are too big. I had a bag of baby carrots that I added to my crockpot so blending fully was my best bet since I didn't chop them.
After all the cooking and blending was done, I added my cheese and milk to the soup to melt and warm through.
I should also note I used beef stock with this soup. I liked the depth of flavor it added, but you could easily swap this out for chicken stock or vegetable stock for a meatless/vegetarian option.
This made roughly 10 cups of soup and it is super filling!!
Enjoy!
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