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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

I cooked: Broccoli Cream Soup (Martha Stewart)

Rich, creamy and comforting...

My mum loves rich and creamy soups, but we all know too much cream is not good for the waistline ;) When I was browsing Martha Stewart's website, I came across this recipe for broccoli cream soup, which according to Martha "is super creamy in texture, but it contains very little actual cream." The butter and flour mixture, also known as roux, is what gives it body and silkiness. Just perfect!


The soup delivered what it promised... we loved its smooth, rich and creamy texture. This will make a great vegetarian starter, since you can opt to use vegetable stock instead of chicken. The addition of heavy cream (whipping cream) in the original recipe is optional, but I say a little cream will not hurt. To serve, we garnished it with fresh basil leaves and a teeny drop of olive oil.  This soup is great with fresh bread (we had ours with some freshly baked pumpkin muffins - recipe coming soon!).


This is perfect for a quick lunch, you can actually make it the night before and just heat it up when you want to serve it. My daughter sure enjoyed this for her lunch after she got back from school.



Broccoli cream soup
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 25-30 minutes
Serves 2-3

Ingredients
2 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter (approx. 35g)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken stock (or vegetarian stock)
1 broccoli (approx. 300g), trimmed and cut into florets; peel and cut stems crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick pieces
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup heavy cream / whipping cream (optional)
Fresh basil leaves, to garnish

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and then add the onions. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring, until translucent. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute (the flour should not take on any color).

2. Pour in stock, whisking until fully incorporated, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, whisking often, until thickened, about 10 minutes.

3. Add broccoli stems and season with salt and pepper. Return to a boil, stirring to combine. Add florets and return to a boil. Reduce heat and gently simmer until broccoli is tender enough to mash with the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes.

4. Transfer broccoli mixture to the jar of a blender, bowl of a food processor, or puree through a food mill fitted with a fine or coarse disk, or an immersion blender. (I used a hand blender) 

5. Strain soup through a fine mesh sieve into a clean pot, pressing down on solids. (I skipped this step since I do not mind a little texture in my soup)

6. Set pot of soup over low heat and whisk in cream. Thin with more stock or water, if necessary. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately. To store soup, let cool, then cover and refrigerate, up to 1 day.





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I am submitting this to the "Cook Like Martha Stewart" bloghop which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Jocelyn of Riceball Eats. To join, simply cook or bake any recipe from any Martha Stewart websites or cookbooks and blog hop with us for the whole month of December 2012.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in December 2012 - please do not link older posts.Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Jocelyn of Riceball Eats and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

You can get the HTML code here: get the InLinkz code (Click on the link, copy and paste the HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML mode when you paste in the code)

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:


*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's Facebook page on 7 December 2012.

38 comments:

  1. I like brocolli cream soup. I remember we had a very nice one in Notting Hill few years ago.

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    1. I like to have it in restaurants also, first time making at home. Am happy with the results :)

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  2. Looks warm and comforting, especially on a rainy day.

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    1. I really enjoy having soups for lunch. Ah how I wish for cold winter days ;)

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  3. Yummmm!!!! I like!!! But my daughter's not really a fan...so we'd opt for something else usually. :(

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    1. Awww best to enjoy something you both like! :D

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  4. martha stewart sounds like the ideal role model for yourself, and it looks like you've done justice to this recipe. broccoli is one of my favorite veggies (i like it much more than cauliflower at any rate) :D

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    1. You're right, MS is a great role model. So are all the other chefs... really love learning from them all! You're the same as Hubby, he likes broccoli but not cauliflower.

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  5. That's great! There isn't much cream with 1/4 cup compared to the volume that you would get :D Your daughter is so cute :)

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    1. Thanks Lorraine. Yeah this is a relatively healthy soup, me thinks. Very delicious too!

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  6. Creamy and yummy soup. Beautiful clicks

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    1. Thanks Vimitha, great as vegetarian dish for Fridays. :)

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  7. I love broccoli but haven't tried making soup out of it yet :) It looks warm and comforting , great for our weather here :D

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    1. I wish for cold weather too....... so I can make more soups for lunch :P

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  8. Beautiful soup! Sounds good with the pumpkin muffins!

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  9. I've tried making this soup myself.. But guess what ? My family commmented : '' Wah, taste good, but I don't know how to enjoy it ''. LOL
    My mom she was a bit more straight forward, she said : YUCK.
    I rolled my eyes. HAHAHAH
    Cause I think the creamy broccoli soup taste GREAT!~!!!! XD

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    1. LOL... looks like it's an acquired taste and not for everyone :P

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  10. Hi Yen! I love the basil leave and the drops of olive oil on the green broccoli soup served in clean white bowls - Visually appetizing!

    BTW, I am very amazed by your blog posting frequency. That's on average a post a day! Kudos!

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    1. Thanks Alvin. Personally, I find soups one of the most challenging things to photograph, so I thought of dressing it a little with some fresh herbs. Glad u liked it!

      I decided to take a break today so no blogposts today. Not so hardworking afterall LOL!!

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  11. beautiful looking soup!

    would definitely be great on a cold day...

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  12. One suggestion Yen, you can prepared roux in advance, with only butter, flour and milk stored in the fridge for 4 days and you can prepare any kind of vegetable soup, just blend them first, like in this case, onion and broccoli and then fry them and adding the roux and more chicken broth, so you can prepared in 10 minutes coli-flower,tomato, etc...soup...At least is what I do always... Thanks for sharing! looks delicious!

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    1. Thanks for your kind suggestion, Manu! Definitely handy for Christmas day dinner.

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  13. Hi Yen,

    Nice to know this creamy soup is actually very kind to our waistline. Sounds delicious and good to me and my family.

    Totally agree with Alvin (Chef and Sommelier), your presentation for this soup is clean, simple but absolutely fantastic!

    Zoe

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    1. Thanks Zoe. I'm so glad you like the presentation of the soup. My daughter likes it too, basil being one of the fresh herbs she would happily eat.

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  14. Hi Baby Sumo, your creamy soup look appetizing, beautiful color.

    Have a nice day.

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    1. Thanks Amelia, I love the vibrant green too :)

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  15. I loveeeee broccoli. It a super brain food =)

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    1. Good to hear that it's good for our brain too! Yay I feel smarter. :P

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  16. Yen, whenver you cook some soup stewy stuffs, it would be on my mind for days until i eat them!!! Just had kimchi noodles the day, now i am craving for beef stew and broccoli soup...aargh.

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    1. Lol I didn't mean to poison you with my recipes. Looks like we kinda like the same categories of food :P

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  17. looks like one of those soup you can serve in a fine dining restaurant. nice!

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  18. i never had broccoli soup. Looks very good. Actually reminds me of edamame soup. i was just looking at shannon's mushroom soup yesterday and also very keen to try that too. So far i've only tried making pumpkin soup :)

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    1. Ah that Jamie Oliver mushroom soup is really great! I made it once before too. I think we would all eat soup more often if the weather wasn't so hot!

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  19. Love the fresh basil on the lovely super healthy soup and also the fact your baby loved it ..such a no-fuss baby.

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  20. Delicious looking soup and a very pretty daughter. :)

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