Saturday, November 16, 2013

Soup's On!

 A few weeks ago, I saw a recipe for Broccoli Cheese Soup that was made without milk or cream. It sounded really good!

I had picked up all the ingredients earlier this week, and today being one of those kind of overcast days that lend themselves to cooking, and with the last of the clam chowder eaten for lunch, the time was right to make some soup!

Besides, it's also a day that I've spent going back and forth to the laundry area.

The extra (guest room) beds are being picked up tomorrow, so I stripped off the sheets and quilts and pillow shams etc and have been getting them washed and ready to pack.

I also have been trying to put together boxes, but that's a little harder for me. Don't ask me why, I've certainly put together enough boxes in my time!

Anyway, making soup seemed like a good thing to do. So I got out the broccoli and my soup pot, and got busy "chopping btoccoli."  (There was a very annoying song that my kids used to sing, mostly to harass me I think, about "chopping broccoli." I can never cut up broccoli now without that earworm!

 Cooked the broccoli for the length of time specified in the recipe, which is pretty much "overcooking" it. Supposed to bring out the flavor.

Added fresh spinach and cooked that for a few minutes.

Then the "fun" part. I should say right off that I am not a blender kind of person. Mine doesn't get used much, poor thing, but it works like a champ.

Took two batches to get all the broccoli/spinach/cheese pureed.

This might work really well with an immersion blender, but I don't have one, and really for as much of this sort of thing as I do, Old Faithful is just fine.

I kind of like the layers of broccoli, spinach, and cheese in the glass blender. It did puree quite nicely.

And, in the end, this is what I wound up with for dinner: a nice big bowl of delicious broccoli soup!

Garnished with some curls of shaved parmesan, courtesy of my good buddy Trader Joe. 

I like the way this came out. The seasoning was good--it includes some hot mustard powder and a pinch of cayenne pepper, but it doesn't have any bite at all.

I didn't have any fresh garlic, having  used up my last cloves in the chowder earlier in the week, so I used garlic salt, which was all I had. Tastes fine.

Maybe next time I'll have real garlic around. Right now, it's "use it up" time in the pantry!

There are five more servings in the fridge now. Going to be some good lunching around here, I think!

I need to find out if this will freeze well.  I would imagine that it might, since most of the ingredients are freezable on their own. For now, this will get eaten this week so I'm not going to try. Perhaps for the next Soup Day?
Oh yes.

The aftermath.

Lots and lots of dishes, pans, bowls, measuring cups, utensils, not to mention splashed around the countertops.

I did manage to get it all cleaned up--amazing what I can find to do when faced with a really repellent task (ie, making up boxes) to procrastinate on.

Now to go put the rest of the boxes together, fold the sheets and quilts and  towels, and maybe I'll be able to sit and knit for a little while tonight. Tomorrow I can start filling those boxes!

4 comments:

Anna said...

YUMMMMM

Gail said...

I love it when something that's good for you tastes good, too!

Lee I said...

I am contemplating making mixed bean soup. I bought a bunch of dried beans and some large drinking glasses and layered the different colors of beans in the glasses. This will be my contribution to the auction for Soroptimist's fundraiser Tuesday. I threw all the leftover dried beans in a bowl and plan to cook them up. I put some press-on wrap on the top of the bowl. There was a crash later in the day. Jean Luc (well, I presume he was the guilty party) had knocked the bowl off the counter. The press-on wrap held! Miracle. This evening, however, I went to eat some nutritious seeds and raisins from one of those big plastic Costco nut jars. I picked it up and the lid wasn't on tight, so it fell to the floor. I picked up a few of the seeds and raisins from the top layer on the floor, but still lost an awful lot.
And that's my day in the kitchen.

Martha said...

Oh my, that does look yummy!!!!