Cream-less Yet Creamy Veggie Soup

The other day I got this e-mail message from my friend, Jennie.

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Title: Make This Soup!!!

Message:

This is our favorite soup!! So good. You really need fresh broccoli though…


Ingredients:


2 carrots, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
3 tbsp. oil
2 cans chicken broth
1 cup water
1 small bunch broccoli
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ cup Minute Rice, uncooked
1 cup milk
4 slices American Cheese (or Velvetta)

Directions:


Cook and stir carrots, onions, celery in hot oil in a large saucepan on medium high heat for 3 minutes. Add chicken broth, bouillon, pepper, and water, and bring to a boil. Stir in broccoli and uncooked rice. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for about 15 minutes. Use a blender to combine soup. Add milk and cheese. Cook until heated thoroughly, stirring occasionally.
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Jennie and I chatted back and forth a bit more about the soup and she said she thought the recipe came from Kraft Foods and was originally called something like “Creamless Cream of Broccoli Soup”.  I found a very similar recipe HERE, only it calls for Parmesean cheese.  Ah, yet another variation.

So I pondered the recipe as I prepared my grocery list for the week. I remembered that, just the other day, I was reading a cooking blog and the blogger recommended using cauliflower to thicken soup; I stowed that tidbit in the back of my brain for future reference. I decided to follow Jennie’s directive “Make This Soup!!!!” but I made some alterations along the way. I did have some slices of American Cheese in my refrigerator but I did not want to buy Minute Rice just for this one recipe. Plus, I am trying to cut back on the carbs. Here’s what I did.

Cream-less Yet Creamy Veggie Soup (adapted by me)

1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 carrots, diced
3 stalks of celery, diced
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 carton (32 ounces) low sodium chicken broth
1 small to medium sized head of broccoli, chopped into small florets
1 to 1 ½ cups cauliflower (about 1/3 of a head), chopped into small florets
1 teaspoon salt (more if desired)
½ teaspoon black pepper (more if desired)
½ teaspoon garlic powder (more if desired)
1 cup of milk (I used 1% milk)
4 slices of American Cheese

Directions:

Cook and stir carrots, onions, celery in hot oil in a large saucepan or soup pot on medium high heat for 3 minutes. Add chicken broth, bring to a boil. Stir in broccoli and cauliflower. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for about 15 minutes. Use a blender to combine soup (I used my immersion “stick” blender which made this very easy). Add milk and cheese. Cook until heated thoroughly, stirring occasionally. Taste for seasoning; add more salt, pepper, and garlic powder as desired and if needed. (A note about the seasoning: Since the original recipe called for chicken bouillon, I realize I missed out on a lot of salt and flavoring by omitting that ingredient. I don’t have exact measurements for you for the salt, pepper, and garlic powder; I just added more until it tasted good to me. My batch of soup is quite peppery… in a GOOD way).

Next time I make this soup, I might add the cauliflower to the broth, cook it for about 5 minutes, and THEN add the broccoli. I think the cauliflower might have a longer cooking time than the broccoli. When I blended the soup, I could still sort of “recognize” the cauliflower in the soup despite the pureeing. It’s just a thought; I am happy with my soup just the way it is. Why, I even had some soup for breakfast one day which is a total aberration for me.

I feel good about the alterations I made to this soup in order to help me stick with my New Year’s Resolutions. While I did use some processed American Cheese in this, I reduced the processed carbohydrates (in the form of white rice) and added extra veggies. Cruciferous veggies (such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and also kale and collared greens) are super good for you... so in this recipe… I doubled up on the cruciferous veggies plus I added extra carrots and celery.

I can't tell you how my adapted version compares to the original.  Jennie says she loves the soup because it's very filling and, when she tries new soup recipes, she wishes she had made this soup instead.  Good stuff!  Thanks for the AWESOME recipe, Jennie!