Friday, April 29

Cheddar makes it better

This also could have been titled "What happens when I have a harrowing, haggard week, and my PMS forms an alternate identity and decides to sit down with a glass of wine and write a guest post on my blog. Rawr."

Yup. This week has been disastrously stressful for not only me, but everyone I'm really close to as well.

You know what make makes it allll better?

EATING CHEESE FOR DINNER.

It's time for another recipe post, amigos.
You're gonna want to bookmark this babaaay.
AKA Broccoli Cheddar Soup.
Makes about 8 cups (1 regrettably large serving)
  • 2 cups diced celery (about 4 stalks)
  • 1 medium or large yellow onion, diced
  • 2 large carrots, finely grated
  • 3 tablespoons butter or veggie oil
  • generous amounts of salt & pepper
  • 1/2 cup cornstarch (or sub 1 cup flour if you reeeally have to, and double the amount of butter/veggie oil)
  • 2 cups half & half
  • 3 to 4 cups veggie broth (depending on how thick you want it)
  • 1 lb chopped broccoli (frozen or fresh)
  • 12 oz. cheddar cheese (the sharper the better)


1) Begin by chopping out your angst on the veggies. DIE, celery, DIE, into tiny little chunks.
...Watch your fingers.
Look at how HEALTHY we are! *patting myself on the back
2) Turn the stove on medium-high, and melt the butter (in the bottom of a large  cooking pot. Toss in the veggies, lots of black pepper, and enjoy the satisfying sizzle. Saute for about 5 minutes.

3) Remove from heat, and add the corn starch gradually while stirring.

4) This is where it starts getting exciting (i.e. the calories go through the roof). Turn the burner back up to medium, put the pot back on it, and add the half & half and the veggie broth.

There will be some cornstarch-butter business coating the bottom of the pan. Make sure to scrape this off, or it will burn and make the entire soup taste like DEVASTATING TRAGEDY.


5a) Let it cook & thicken for 25 minutes. Check back every ten minutes or so to stir it & scrape the bottom (just in case). If it's starting to boil & froth at the top, turn it down a few notches.
salt meeeeeee

5b) While you stir it: add salt, stir, taste, & repeat. Basically, add salt until it tastes as good as it smells. This will be a scary amount of salt. That's okay.

Try not to "taste" the entire pot away. (Because then you have to eat the broccoli all by itself and that's just not as fun.)

6) Add the broccoli & cook for about 10 minutes, until it's unfrozen/cooked to softness.

7) Meanwhile, find something really distracting to do because it smells AWESOME by now.

Oh HEY! You have some cheese to grate, don't you? Grate it. Aaand I listed 2 extra ounces in the ingredient list so you can snack a bit. You are so welcome.

"Cheese Mountain." Also could have been the name of my blog. 'Cause I'm so cheesy. PAAAhahaha. Ha.
8) Mix in the cheese until it melts.

9) Happy weekend.


Anybody else have a super weird week?
What are you doing to shake it off?

10 comments:

April said...

FAQ (just kidding, I only published this like two minutes ago and no one has read this post yet):

Some of you may have the unfortunate privilege to know about my lactose intolerance, and are really confused by this post. Let's just say this recipe is worth the unfortunate symptoms.

The lactose intolerance is kind of a blessing in disguise, I guess, because it keeps me from eating this every. single. night.

Yay?

v o j a c q u e said...

i love cheddar cheese! and i also really like broccoli. giving this a try for sure! thanks for sharing. :)

v o j a c q u e said...

ps. enjoy your weekend. :)

Markie said...

I'm sorry your week has been a stressful one! I hope it brightens soon.
Mmmmm... I miss cheese. The other day, I commented to Adam "You know... if I ever am able to eat all of things I'm allergic to again... I'm going to get reeeeally fat." Not even kidding. If I could, I would eat 10 portions of this soup without even batting an eye. Good recipe post!

April said...

Markie, I was thinking a while ago that your food allergies must make your diet SO healthy!

Maybe you could look at it this way: your body is just much wiser than the rest of the population's ; )

danielle @ take heart said...

i NEED to make this. YUM :)

Kelley @ Kelley Maria said...

mmmmmmm

Paul said...

Ha! Great post (and great comments). And great (have I said "great" yet) picture of cheddar and use of font. Love that font! I'm totally down with you making this up and giving it to your non-lactose intolerant friends (even though I'm a virtual, blogger friend so this makes this scenario a little tough)

April said...

I thought of you when I used that font, Paul!

& yes, I love serving this to my real-life friends so I can live vicariously through them (I can eat about half a mug of it until my face starts to turn green). Hope you get to try it sometime! : )

Sam said...

This last week was terrible for me too! WTF? I'm calling you soon.