Broccoli Cheese Soup from Terry

This recipe is from my sister in law, Terry. She is the mother of 5 but her home, like mine, is shrinking. Terry has two children still at home. She is a great cook and has always been an encourager to me.~ Pam

I made the following soup tonight and it was VERY good - rated a 5 by Danny for a cream soup.

A few notes:

1) I made 2 batches (long story) one I did w/milk and it almost tasted exactly the same as the one below using half & half, just a little less rich. If you didn't have both (like we did) to compare them you'd never know the difference :-)

2) The recipe below says 4 servings - it did fill 4 bowls, BUT my people usually eat more than 1 bowl :-) You can go to the website www.cdkitchen.com and do a search for Panera Bread Broccoli Cheese Soup and then you can change the number of servings and they will figure the amount of ingredients needed on the website - pretty cool :-)

3) If you've ever had Panera's broccoli cheese soup I think you'll agree that this is as close to a duplicate as you can get without sneaking into their kitchen and stealing their recipe :-)

4) See little notes in recipe where I changed it up a bit :-)

Enjoy!!

Terry

Panera Bread Broccoli Cheese Soup
CDKitchen http://www.cdkitchen.com

Category: Broccoli Cheese Soup
Serves/Makes: 4 | Difficulty Level: 3 | Ready In: 30-60 minutes

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups half-and-half
2 cups chicken stock or bouillon
1/2 pound fresh broccoli (which is basically a good size head of broccoli)
1 cup carrots, julienned (I just sliced the carrots since you puree most of them later any way - takes less time)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
8 ounces grated sharp cheddar

Directions:
Saute onion in butter. Set aside. Cook melted butter and flour using a whisk over medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Stir constantly and slowly add the half-and-half (this is called making a roux). Add the chicken stock whisking all the time. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the broccoli, carrots and onions. Cook over low heat until the veggies are tender for 20-25 minutes. Add salt and pepper. The soup should be thickened by now. Pour in batches into blender and puree *. Return to pot over low heat and add the grated cheese; stir until well blended. Stir in the nutmeg and serve. (* I only puree about 2/3 of the chunks - we like to have some chunks left in our soup)

Recipe Location: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/1833/Panera-Bread-Broccoli-Cheese-S79119.shtml
Recipe ID: 49903