The Secret to the Best Broccoli and Cheddar Soup: Add Broccoli in Stages
Some broccoli and cheddar soups are just a dull bowl of nacho cheese with a few pieces of broccoli floating in it. For a more flavorful soup, broccoli should be added in layers.
Serious Eats’ J. Kenji López-Alt has a soup trick guaranteed to enhance your very own broccoli cheddar recipe. Instead of making a stuffed cheese soup and tossing broccoli in it, separate the broccoli and add its flavor to the soup in two ways. Start by slicing a pound and a half of broccoli and separating the small flowers and chopped stems. Add the buds to two tablespoons of oil in a Dutch oven or saucepan over high heat. Let them char on the bottom a little, then stir to char on the other side as well and season with salt. Transfer them to a baking sheet after a few minutes to cool. These fragrant buds will be what you add at the end.
Now you need to prepare the base for the soup, but you can use broccoli stalks to avoid the cheesy taste overpowering the broccoli. Take chopped broccoli stalks, cook them in the same saucepan that the flowers were in, with a little carrots and onions, and mix them into the base of the soup. You now have a delicious and balanced broccoli and cheddar soup. You can find López-Alt’s complete broccoli and cheddar soup recipe at the link below.
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