Broccoli cheddar soup

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 onion, chopped 
• ¼ cup melted butter
• ¼ cup flour 
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups chicken stock 
• 1 ½ cups chopped broccoli
• 1 cup matchstick-cut carrots
• 2 ½ cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
• salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onion in hot butter until translucent, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
2. Whisk 1/4 cup melted butter and flour together in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Continue to whisk and cook, adding 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk if necessary to keep the flour from burning, 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Gradually pour milk into flour mixture while whisking constantly. Stir chicken stock into milk mixture. Bring to a simmer; cook until mixture is thickened, about 20 minutes.
4. After the mixture has thickened, add broccoli, carrots, and sauteed onion. Let the vegetables simmer until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.
5. Stir Cheddar cheese into vegetable mixture until cheese melts. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Comments:

I love this soup! This recipe is a spin-off of the Panera Bread broccoli cheddar soup. I paired this dish with toasted bread. If you can make bread bowls, you can serve this soup in a bread bowl like how they do at Panera Bread. If you want it to be more cheesy, add more cheese and if it gets too thick, stir in milk to make it thinner. For a richer taste, you can use half and half for the milk portion. You can add more veggies into the soup if you want or to add more protein you can add shredded chicken. If you think you’re burning your flour mixture add your milk so it doesn’t completely burn. This takes a good amount of time to prep and cook, so if you’re in a time crunch, this would not be a good option for dinner. Also, this recipe wasn’t too difficult to make but if you’ve never cooked before, I wouldn’t start with this one.