Broccoli Cheddar Soup (Panera Copycat)

 


Ingredients:

  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 cups veg stock (most recipes call for chicken stock)
  • 1 1/2 cups broccoli florets (about 1 head)
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 stalk celery
  • 2 1/2 cups sharp cheddar
  • Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
  1. Chop 1/2 onion, 1 1/2 cups broccoli florets, 1 stock celery, and 2 carrots
  2. Sauté the onion and set aside
  3. Whisk together 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup flour in large saucepan over medium-low heat for approx 4 minutes
  4. Add 2 cups milk while whisking, then add 2 cups veg stock. Let simmer until thickened, approx 20 min
  5. Add 1 1/2 cups broccoli, 1 cup carrots, 1 stock celery, and 1/2 sautéed onion. Let simmer until vegetables are softened, approx 20 min
  6. Add 2 1/2 cups cheddar and stir until melted. Season with salt and pepper to taste
Yield: About 4 bowls


Description:

Back when I was in college, the most economically-friendly meal you could get at the cafeteria was a bowl from the soup bar. However, their selection rotated on a daily basis, and no matter how affordable it was, most of them were too thin to be worth it. The two big exceptions to this were the loaded baked potato, and the broccoli cheddar soup. If either of those were available you had to jump at them before everyone else did. Notoriously hearty, satisfying soups.

So even though this is a Panera copycat recipe, I was inspired by my college cafeteria. I have, in fact, never been to a Panera. I just used this recipe because when I looked online, the copycat recipe was one of the first hits, and every one that wasn't had to brag that their recipe was even better than Panera's and seemed to use it as a baseline. So I figured that somewhere down the line, Panera set the gold standard for broccoli cheddar soup.

I used vegetable stock because one of my New Year's Resolutions was to learn vegetarian recipes and commit to a meatless day by the end of the year. Part of the plan was to add some vegetarian meals to this blog. While I've posted some vegetarian things, they've all been snacks, appetizers or sides. To me, the vegetable stock worked fine and I was very satisfied with the end result, but most recipes call for chicken stock.

This recipe did call for 2% milk, but most of the recipes I saw called for half & half. I saw heavy cream and skim milk thrown out as alternative suggestions, so I guess you can choose whatever fat content you want for your dairy product, depending on how thick you want to make your soup. It looked like half & half was standard. I used 2% because it was what I had, and it worked out.

I added a little extra broccoli because I ain't afraid of broccoli. Even if you like milder cheeses, you should still go for the sharp cheddar because the white sauce dumbs down the flavour quite a bit.

I had two bowls, Lee-Anne had one, and we had about enough left over for one more. I was saying that if I were to make it again, I might double the recipe to have more left over.

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