Monday, May 21, 2007

Simple Broccoli Soup with “Easy” Cheddar Croutons

Here you’ll see the classic, and very simple, technique for homemade vegetable soups. I’m using broccoli, but almost any vegetable will work. I am a disciple of the Gordon Ramsey School of vegetable soups. It’s basically the vegetable, some stock or water, just cooked until tender, pureed and seasoned simply. His “crazy” theory is that the star of the bowl should be the featured vegetable itself.

The cheddar croutons you’ll also see in the demo really make it special, as well as providing an excuse to use my culinary blow-torch!! The chewy, cheesy garnish is a perfect contrast to our minimalist soup approach.

I also hope that after watching this clip you seriously consider getting a good immersion blender, which are also sometimes called stick blenders. They are fairly cheap and an incredibly handy tool for making soup at home the simple pleasure it should be. It’s also fantastic for making salad dressings and sauces, as you’ll see in other clips. By the way, if you don’t have one of these stick blenders, don’t worry. Just carefully use your blender by blending a few small batches at a time to avoid the dreaded “flying scalding soup” situation. Enjoy.



Ingredients:
2 heads broccoli
1 tbl butter
1 clove garlic
1 quart chicken stock
1/3 cup heavy cream
sliced bread
cheddar cheese
cayenne pepper
salt to taste

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the 2nd post of the day - I'm on my way to the store!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Chef John. My boys LOVE broccoli soup! I throw a potato in there to thicken it up just a tad and also use a bit of nutmeg.

I have to try your croutons...If it involves an open flame I'm on it.

Matt said...

I saw the demo, bought the blender and made the soup. It came out great. The blender I bought on Amazon is a Cuisinart "Brushed Chrome Series". FYI -Only the bottom half is chrome. The top half is silver plastic. I froze half of the soup and next time I make it I'm going to seperate the freezer batch before I add the cream. - Matt

Unknown said...

Hi John

Would you make this soup with carrots? If so, what is the carrots/stock ratio?

Chef John said...

sure, just add enough stock to cover,after you puree you can add more stock to adjust.

Anonymous said...

how much is 1 quart into cups?
thanks^^

Chef John said...

4

Anonymous said...

Would you mind telling me the brand name of the mini torch you used? I think you said it was a creme brulee torch. I've never made creme brulee or for that matter anything that requires a torch.

Can't wait to try this soup!

Chef John said...

bed bath and beyond has them, i don't have the name of the brand.

Anonymous said...

New to the site and was wondering where I would find the directions for each receipe? Or do your followers just watch the video?

Unknown said...

Delicious! I love this website! Thank you! We had stems left over and didn't want to waste them, made this with 2% milk and loved it!!

Boogbite said...

This was so good! My husband makes your recipes all the time, but this was my first from Food Wishes. It's a keeper!

Unknown said...

I loved the guy who wanted to know how many cups in a quart? Good soup!

Amandee said...

what do you suggest as a pairing sandwich?

Jessica said...

Hi,
I'm a school teacher & reading a primary school in Florida. Last few minutes reading your blog post and understand that I have to need a blender to save my time to cook and making juice for my kids. So I think I buy a vitamix blender for blend fruits juice. I was searching post about best stick blender but I didn't find in your blog. My request to you please mention me a post about the best and cheap stick blender. I hope you will do it for me.
Waiting for your reply.
Thanks
Jessica