Who can resist a hearty soup, especially when the weather outside is dreary? The changing of seasons is an ideal opportunity to put on your apron and whip up some delicious soups, and there’s definitely no shortage of recipes out there.
The appeal of soup lies in its simplicity. Most often, all it requires is chopping some vegetables and letting them simmer in the stock until they’re ready to be served. So, for my first soup of the season last year, I opted to test a viral recipe that had caught my eye on TikTok, amassing an impressive 20 million views and over one million likes.
Posted by @cookwithauds, the broccoli and cheddar soup is the perfect indulgent comfort dish to enjoy throughout this autumn and winter.
Brimming with nutrients from broccoli and carrots, and the luxury of a generous portion of cheddar cheese, it has everything you could ever want from a comfort meal.
Having made it myself, I can say that it’s probably the best soup I’ve ever made – even a year later. Two words that I’d used to describe it would definitely be ‘restaurant quality’.
It was simple, delicious, indulgent, and made plenty of servings – which tasted even more delicious in the following days. The chef chose to garnish hers with crispy bacon for an additional flavour boost.
Here’s everything you need to prepare the soup – which created four servings – and the steps you need to follow.
Broccoli cheddar soup
Ingredients
- One white onion
- Six cloves of garlic
- Olive oil
- Three tablespoons butter
- Salt, pepper, onion & garlic powder
- Quarter cup flour
- Four cups chicken broth
- Half cup semi-skimmed milk
- Half cup single cream
- Two cups grated cheddar cheese
- Head of broccoli
- Three carrots
Method
Firstly, prepare all your vegetables. Chop the onion, crush the garlic, roughly cut the broccoli – including the stalk – and grate the carrots.
Next, in a large pot with a lid, add a generous amount of olive oil and the butter, allowing it to melt over medium heat.
Add the onions and let them soften for a few minutes, ensuring to stir them well before seasoning with salt, pepper, garlic granules and onion granules – I used about one teaspoon each of the seasonings.
Stir this mixture again before adding in the garlic as well.
After about 30 seconds, add in the flour. This is where I think I made a slight mistake – I don’t think I added enough, so it didn’t thicken up as much as I would have liked.
Then, stir it once more before gradually adding it to the stock. I used two vegetable stock cubes, dissolved in 800ml of boiling water.
Cover the pot and leave it to cook on medium-low heat for around 15 minutes. This is when I put the oven on to make a garlic baguette – because what’s soup without some delicious carbs to accompany it?
Afterwards, add the milk and cream to the pot and then slowly add in the grated cheese. I used around 250g of grated extra mature but made sure to reserve some to sprinkle on top of the soup when serving.
At this stage, you can season to taste, before adding in the chopped broccoli and grated carrots.
Replace the lid and allow it to cook for an additional 10 minutes, or until the broccoli is cooked. Once ready, portion it into bowls, sprinkle a bit more cheese on top, and serve with your warm garlic bread.