Use it Up Cream of Broccoli Soup with Cheese and Bacon
Friday, January 19, 2007 at 11:27AM A couple of days ago, I cooked a whole young chicken fryer (about 2 1/2-3 lbs.) in the crock pot and used the meat to make Chicken Enchiladas. This left me with about 2 cups of nice, rich chicken stock. I refrigerated it and almost forgot about it until I was poking around in the fridge this morning, looking for something to fix for lunch. My refrigerator hunting expedition also yielded a baggie of crisp, fried bacon, (leftovers from a salad I made earlier in the week) a big bunch of broccoli, some half and half that really needed to be used up in a day or two and some green onions. So I decided to make soup.
Soup of any kind is pretty easy to make without a recipe. If you have some broth, some veggies, and a few seasonings, you can make soup. Cream soup is a little trickier, but not much. If you know how to make a basic bechamel sauce and you have some interesting ingredients to throw in, you can make soup.
Here's my "recipe" from today's refrigerator exploration:
8 tsp butter
1/2 c. flour
Melt butter in large saucepan and add flour. Whisk until all flour is incorporated. Allow this mixture (roux) to cook on low for a few minutes, or until the roux becomes nutty brown in color.
Gradually add the broth (about 2 cups) and 1 cup half and half; cook on medium low, stirring constantly until it starts getting thick. Stir in broccoli (cut into smallish bite sized pieces) and about two green onions, slicely thinly on the diagonal, and cook on low for about 10 minutes or so, or until broccoli is soft, but not mushy. Remove from heat. Add some crisp, crumbled bacon (about 3 or four pieces), 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper, and about 2-2 1/2 cups of cheese. Stir until cheese melts. You might need to thin it down a little. If so taste the broth and decide whether you need to thin it with more half and half or maybe a little chicken broth.
Don't have broccoli? You could use cauliflower instead. Or roasted veggies. (Dice up multi colored peppers, onions, carrots, potatoes, celery--whatever you've got-- into a large dice. Spread out on cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Roast in 400 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour.) Add to the thickened chicken stock and half and half and finish as above. Don't have chicken stock on hand? Use canned chicken broth. Don't have that either?--use a boullion cube. No bacon? Substitute ham.
Soup isn't rocket science and it IS very forgiving. So poke around and see what needs to be used up and make soup.
If you make "use it up" soup this week, leave me a note in the comments and let me know what you used.
Reader Comments (5)
Great tips for soup. I have lots of broccoli left from a Costco size bag. I'll use it up, but I'll try your recipe :)
Sounds yummy!!
Sounds deeelicious! I'm always gently amused by those intimidated by soup - it's easy! And yummy.
yep. Soup is easy! It's really hard to make a bad soup and very easy to make a good one!
This is a great post, Kim.
I love soup. I make a lot of bean soups and find that I'm always throwing in extra vegetables and especially carrots. For whatever reason, I just don't seem to use up carrots very quickly. A one pound bag will last for a month on my recipes. So they go into the soup.
I know what you mean about carrots going into the pot. I thought after I had the soup all finished that some grated carrot might have been nice.
We go through a lot of carrots because I put them in salads and I like to give them to the dogs for treats. Ivy would do almost anything for a carrot.