No Soup for You! "Cream" of Broccoli Soup (?) Take 1

With all the broccoli I bough when it was on sale I proceeded to go about making a bunch of broccoli foods. I also tried to make a batch of cream of broccoli soup. I must admit that broccoli soup is not something I have ever had the interest in personally. I love cream of spinach soup and cream of asparagus soup is on my short list of best foods ever...but somehow I have had zero interest in the broccoli version. This is most likely due to the general addition of cheddar to it. I have never been a fan of cheddar.

However i do not cook for myself only. I live with my sister and her husband and both of them enjoy broccoli soup so i decided that I would try my hand at making some. After all how hard can it be? Now, My sister is a Vegan (70% - so no Vegan Powers sadly), so I needed to make a soup that would not rely on chicken broth or dairy.

So here is a record of my first attempt...

You will need:

A Large pot
A Cutting Board

A Sharp Knife

A Blender or an Immersion Blender

A Measuring cup

A Tablespoon Measuring spoon

Ingredients needed (for ~5 servings - Give or Take):

 2 lbs Broccoli stalks, chopped (roughly 4 Cups) Florets reserved for other uses
1 Onion, diced
2 Leeks, halved and sliced
1 C Diced Celery
1-3 Tbsp Oil
2 Tbsp Flour
6 C Vegetarian Broth (I used Better than Bullion and water)
1 dash Salt (to taste)

Directions:

1. Chop the Broccoli, Leeks, Onions, and celery.

Already I was in trouble. I had no leeks on hand (it was kind of spur of the moment when i decided to make soup) and when I went for my celery it was all gross! - Eww!

So what to do? I decided to go ahead with it anyway. How much difference could those 2 ingredients make anyway. I have had ingredients go missing or whatever before, so I fifured in this instance it was no big deal to continue.

2. Place the vegetables and the oil in a soup pot and saute until the onions are translucent. Stirring to prevent burning.  Cook for about 10 minutes.

3. Add the flour to the pot once the vegetables are cooked. Still to coat. Continuing to cook briefly, until the flour begins to color slightly - 5 minutes or so.

4. Add the broth. Add it in batches, stirring between each to prevent the flour from clumping.

As i said, I used Better than Bullion. The jar lists the directions of taking one tsp of Bullion paste and dissolve into one cup of water for every cup of broth you want. Better than bullion is some pretty awesome stuff, but it is kind of hard to measure well. It is very thick (think molasses) so I find the best way to measure it is to either scoop out the spoon after each dip - ie scoop the bullion and then dump it into the bowl (pot etc) and while dumping it out take your (clean) finger and smoosh out the spoon. Or you can try the oily spoon method - where-in you dip the unused measuring spoon in an oil first then measure out the bullion (also works with other sticky thick substances). The Oil Method works pretty well, but adds extra oil to your recipe, which isn't always ok to do.

5. Bring the pot up to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes.

6. Remove the soup from heat and blend it to a smooth consistency.

You can use an immersion blender if you have one, or you can use a standard upright blender or ninja or whatever kind of blending tool you have. An immersion blender is the best kind of tool for this job. I didn't realize my sister had an immersion blender available so i used the regular blender for this.

Why is a stick blender better? Because the biggest problem you face when blending hot liquids is their risk of explosion. No, seriously! Its dangerous because the hot liquid will expand rapidly when agitated and you can get really hurt. So if you are using a standard blender be sure to only fill the vessel part way (like less than half) and blend in batches. If what you are blending is thick DO NOT attempt to pop the "bubble" that forms in the blender when mixing hot foods. It is still safe to blend, just be smart about it.

Using a stick blender will allow you to blend in the pot preventing the issues of rapid expansion and bubbles from being dangerous.

7. Tada! Soup! Eat and enjoy.

So yeah...I totally didn't have soup at the end of this. I had something that appeared to be gravy. I was perhaps a little heavy on the flour, or maybe I didn't put enough water in. Or maybe i walked away from it for too long (I forgot to set a timer) and too much evaporated. For whatever reason my end result was WAY thicker than soup is supposed to be.

With some trepidation I took a taste. Freaking Delicious! Holy Crap! My brother in law had arrived shortly after I finished the product and announced his intentions to make a batch of mashed potatoes and top them with the "Cream" of  Broccoli Non-Soup. So totally awesome. We ate it all.

Moral of the story....

Sometimes you really do need all the ingredients to make the dish.

Don't give up on a dish if it doesn't turn out the way you intended.

Asparagus Blue Cheese Pasta

It is Spring!!

Farmer's Market is in full swing and it is time to learn what to do with all the wonderful items showing up at the market right now.

Asparagus.

Asparagus, like opportunity, is not a lengthy visitor. Only available for a few weeks in early spring these tender shoots are a real delicacy.

They are fantastic roasted or grilled, very easy to steam or pan fry. You can use them anywhere fresh green veggies are welcome...stir-fry, pasta, salad, etc.

My favorite thing to do with them is...Blue Cheese and Asparagus Farfalle

You will need:

A Pasta Pot
A colander
A Cutting Board
A Knife
A small oven safe pan
Small pan
Spoons

Ingredients needed (for 4-6 servings):

1 pound Farfalle (Bow Tie) Pasta
1 pound Shallots
1 pound Asparagus
½ pound of Blue Cheese
5+ cloves of Garlic
1 Cup of Dry Vermouth
1 cup of Panko (or other bread crumbs)
Some Olive Oil
Some Butter

Directions:

1.Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees
2.Slice the shallots and place them in the oven dish. Peel the garlic and add to the dish. Drizzle with olive oil and top with vermouth.
3.Get the water boiling in your pasta pot.
4.Prepare your asparagus. (Many books and people tell you to cut the ends off the asparagus and then peel half of the length of the stalk. I find that simply snapping the ends off works well. The tend to snap off just after the woody end. Peeling is a total waste of valuable nutrients and flavor.) You want the asparagus spears to be broken into bite sized pieces of no longer than 2 inches in length. 1 inch is ideal.
5.When the oven is hot, put the shallots and garlic in and cook for 15 minutes or so.
6.When the water is boiling add the pasta to the pot.
7.Crumble the blue cheese.
8.Cook pasta until nearly done (according to personal preferences and package directions) when there is only about 2 minutes until it is done, add the asparagus to the pot.

9.In a small pan melt the butter. Add the panko and cook, stirring until browned.
10.Drain the pasta and asparagus in the colander.
11.Return the pasta and asparagus to the pot. Add the blue cheese and stir.
12.Remove the shallots and garlic from the oven. Add them to the pasta, stir.
13.Top with panko...stir.
14.Eat.

Fantastic. Easy. Delicious. This dish is done. It needs nothing.



Nutrition (serving 6)

Calories per serving: 569
Fat: 15g
Protein: 21g
Cholesterol: 21mg
Sodium: 567mg
Potassium: 615mg
Fiber: 3g
Calcium: 243mg
Iron: 5mg
Zinc: 2mg
Vitamin C: 11mg
Vitamin A: 9885IU
B6: 4mg
B12: 3mcg
B1: 1mg
B2: 6mg
Folacin: 121mcg
Niacin: 8mg