Cream of Broccoli Soup

Backstory

I had all these ingredients and a soup sounded just peachy. I don’t usually splash around in the “cream of…” puddle, but I _did_ have this quart of half-and-half, so I mixed it in.

Sadness. Tragedy. Lactose intolerance.

So I froze most of it and brought it to work. A co-worker liked it so I gave her the whole 5-quart batch. It was gone in three days and no, they don’t have kids. (I hope they didn’t feed it to the dogs!)

So here it is. A solid, great for leftovers kind of soup. That I can’t eat. 🙁

Ingredients

  • 4 heads and stems broccoli
  • 3 large onions
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 1/6C olive oil
  • 6 carrots
  • 4 baking or 8 yukon gold potatoes
  • 4 cups cooked elbow noodles
  • 3/4 to a whole leftover chicken, cooked however you liked it
  • Water
  • Paprika, pepper, salt, chili powder

Preparation

  1. Roughly chop onions, potatoes, brocholli and carrots and peel the brocholli stems and chop them too, and then toss everything into about 3Q water
  2. Mince garlic and add oil and spices. (I use only a drop of salt to help cook the veggies — about 1t.)
  3. Debone and skin the chicken and add it all in. Scrape off as much of the fat as possible, or, if you want it, skimp on the olive oil.
  4. When things soften up (about 45 minutes), bring down to a simmer and add 1/2Q of heavy cream or half-and-half. Let that rumble for about an hour. (No, I don’t think Silk(tm) will work the same way.)
  5. Pull out as much of the brocolli as you can, along with liquids to make about 1Q. Frappe it in your favorite bladed appliance, then pour it all back in. If you want it thicker, hunt for potatoes. Thinner, go for just liquids and some bigger chunks.)
  6. Add the cooked noodles and return it all to simmer for 30-45 minutes.

Yield: ~5 quarts

Timing

Prep time: 20 minutes Elapsed time: ~2 hours