Vegetarian Broccoli Cream Soup
I work at the local pizza restaurant during the lunch hour when we usually stay busy serving pizza by the slice, breadsticks, sandwiches, wraps, fajitos, and on Fridays, enchiladas.
This winter, soup was added to the menu. My co-worker is a marvelous cook and prepares these soups a couple times each week, varying between potato soup, chicken noodle, pizza soup, and broccoli soup. Unfortunately none of these soups are intended to be vegetarian so I don’t eat them.
A few weeks ago I took her broccoli soup recipe home and adapted it to my vegetarian diet. I still use milk products so I added whole milk to my soup; if you’re vegan, you can eliminate that and substitute water or broth instead. (Yes, more adaptions, but I’m sure you can handle it.)
Here’s my version of our Broccoli Cream Soup without the chicken broth!
In a large soup pan heat three cups of water while you’re chopping veggies.
Chop one cup of carrots and toss them in the water.
Then chop one cup of celery. Toss it in.
Next, the broccoli. You’ll need four cups of that. Toss it in and let it boil for about three minutes.
Hint: chop the carrots and celery in small pieces, not large chunks.
Next you’re going to drain the water from the veggies. But save the broth! I put the broth back into my four-cup pyrex measuring cup and put the veggies in my strainer which sits in the sink until I need them again.
The next thing you’ll need is an onion. Chop about 3/4 of a cup of onion and put it into the large soup pan with six tablespoons of butter. Heat the onions, stirring, stirring, until they are tender.
Add six tablespoons of flour, and stir until creamy. Work it all in.
Now gently and slowly, add back in your three cups of vegetable broth, stirring it into the floury onion-butter mixture so that everything is even and not lumpy.
Next add two cups of milk if you use milk. If not, stir in two cups of water.
Heat it up! You need for this to boil for at least a minute, and if you’re using milk, you’d better stir constantly.
Next add back in your veggies (remember, the ones you boiled earlier?)
To this mixture add one tablespoon parsley, one and a half teaspoons of salt, and half a teaspoon of garlic powder.
Simmer covered for 35 to 40 minutes.
Serve with warm tortillas, quesadillas, buttered french bread, or whatever you have that sounds and tastes good to you!
We get about four servings out of this soup.
I love broccoli soup to no end…I love to chop the flourets and fold them into my soup before I serve it..gives a great crunch..Great reciepe..now I’m gons check some more of yours out
Comment by Chef Erik — Thursday, March 6, 2008 @ 4:45 pm
[...] Jo Martin presents Vegetarian Broccoli Cream Soup posted at Country Kitchen Pantry | Herbs, Spices, Recipes, Cooking, saying, “Great recipe for [...]
Pingback by Vegetarian Carnival #14: yummy winter recipes and more — Monday, March 10, 2008 @ 8:25 pm
Broccoli soup is one of my favorite appetizers. I never failed to order this soup especially when dining out for a dinner. However, I haven’t tasted a vegetarian broccoli soup yet… but I wanted to try your version soon for a change!
Comment by forbrugslaan.org — Wednesday, April 2, 2008 @ 6:50 am
@ Chef Erik - you sound like a professional! While I’ve been cooking for many years, I only recently got a job as a professional cook. I’ve been at the job for almost a year now, and love it.
@forbrugslaan.org - Let us know if you try the recipe, and how you like it. I don’t know how it compares to the version with chicken broth because I don’t use meat products.
Comment by Linda — Thursday, April 3, 2008 @ 8:41 am
I love broccoli cream soup, and your recipe sounds very similar to mine.
The only difference is that I put more broccoli in and after it’s cooked put about half of it in the food processor and lightly blend it. It think it gives more broccoli flavor to the soup, plus add a nice texture.
Comment by LisaN — Tuesday, April 15, 2008 @ 9:16 pm
Whoa what is pizza soup??? That sounds interesting lol!
Comment by Sunny — Tuesday, March 24, 2009 @ 5:04 pm
The Pizza Soup wasn’t very popular. Maybe you can find it via google. I never tried it because I’m vegetarian and the soup wasn’t. Maybe it can be adapted. I’m not even making this Broccoli Soup anymore because now I’ve switched to being vegan (almost there.. I just have one more thing to give up: butter.)
Comment by Linda — Friday, March 27, 2009 @ 10:12 am
This sounds pretty good! I had some broccoli cheese soup the other day and didn’t really like it, the cheese taste was just overwhelming.
Comment by Sunny — Friday, April 3, 2009 @ 5:30 pm
Broccoli cream soup is a very fine meal.
Comment by james & nicholson — Wednesday, July 15, 2009 @ 6:17 am