Simple Broccoli Soup with “Easy” Cheddar Croutons

Here you’ll see the classic, and very simple, technique for homemade vegetable soups. I’m using broccoli, but almost any vegetable will work. I am a disciple of the Gordon Ramsey School of vegetable soups. It’s basically the vegetable, some stock or water, just cooked until tender, pureed and seasoned simply. His “crazy” theory is that the star of the bowl should be the featured vegetable itself.

The cheddar croutons you’ll also see in the demo really make it special, as well as providing an excuse to use my culinary blow-torch!! The chewy, cheesy garnish is a perfect contrast to our minimalist soup approach.

I also hope that after watching this clip you seriously consider getting a good immersion blender, which are also sometimes called stick blenders. They are fairly cheap and an incredibly handy tool for making soup at home the simple pleasure it should be. It’s also fantastic for making salad dressings and sauces, as you’ll see in other clips. By the way, if you don’t have one of these stick blenders, don’t worry. Just carefully use your blender by blending a few small batches at a time to avoid the dreaded “flying scalding soup” situation. Enjoy.



Ingredients:
2 heads broccoli
1 tbl butter
1 clove garlic
1 quart chicken stock
1/3 cup heavy cream
sliced bread
cheddar cheese
cayenne pepper
salt to taste