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Creamy broccoli-cheese soup has a secret: No cream, no flour

Recipe: Hearty winter warmer also is gluten-free

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JAN 28, 2024

This hearty bowl of broccoli-cheese soup is creamy thanks to potato, not cream or flour. Debbie Arrington

Cream soups (particularly cheese soups) can seem like thinned sauce or gravy. That’s because they basically are just that. The ingredients used for thickening are the same: Cream, butter and flour.

Skip the roux and grab a potato. This recipe for broccoli-cheddar cheese soup uses one medium potato to give silkiness to the soup base and thicken it without adding flour. Another switch: 1% milk for cream.

Instead of putting all the broccoli in the pot at once, save out the tender florets and add them later. With less cooking, they hold their form.

The sharper the cheddar, the cheesier the soup (I used half medium, half sharp). The addition of Parmesan cheese accentuates the cheddar. Be careful not to boil the soup after the addition of cheese; it will separate and get grainy. Instead, gently reheat, if necessary.

Creamy broccoli-cheddar cheese soup

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

¼ cup butter or margarine (½ stick)

½ cup onion, chopped

3 cups vegetable broth

1 carrot, peeled and julienned (about ¾ cup)

1 medium potato, peeled and cubed (about 1 cup)

¼ teaspoon thyme

1 large broccoli crown (10 ounces; makes about 4 cups, chopped)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup milk, preferably 1%

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

In a large heavy pot or saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Sauté onions until very soft, about 10 minutes.

Soup cooking in pot — Florets go in last. The potato
is already breaking up in the broth.

Add broth and bring to a boil. Add carrot, potato and thyme. Bring to boil, then reduce heat. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Chop broccoli crown, separating the stems from the florets. Add stems to broth, adjusting heat as necessary. Simmer for 10 more minutes, then add florets.

Continue simmering broth and vegetables until the broccoli stems are tender and the potato is dissolving into the broth (about 10 more minutes).

Adjust seasoning, adding salt and pepper if necessary.

Stir in milk. Bring back to simmer but don’t boil.

Remove soup from stove and stir in cheeses. Stir until the cheeses are melted and blended into the soup.

Return to heat briefly, if necessary, so soup is evenly warmed through, being careful not to boil.

Serve immediately.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

soup broccoli cheese healthy winter January Sacramento gardening backyard produce seasonal cooking farm to fork farmers markets vegetables

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Garden checklist for week of May 17

With an eye on warmer weather to come, continue to work on the summer vegetable garden:

* Remember to irrigate your tender transplants. The wind can quickly dry out young plants. Seedlings need consistent moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants. Water early in the morning for best results.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, calibrachoa, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Put your veggie garden on a regular diet. Set up a monthly feeding program, and keep track on your calendar. Make sure to water your garden before applying any fertilizer to prevent “burning” your plants.

* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.

* Don’t forget to weed! Those invaders are growing fast.

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