Friday Food: Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup!

     When it is crisp, snow is falling, the Christmas music is playing in October you know it's time to start breaking out the yummy soup recipes. And while you're at it- get big bread rolls from the store, or make them homemade and eat your soup in a bread bowl!!!! (So yummy)

      One day I was surfing the internet for new recipes and I just happened to run across this recipe for a Copy Cat Panera Bread Broccoli Cheddar Cheese soup and I was like- THERE'S NO WAY IM PASSING THIS UP!!!!! So last Wednesday I made it. Let me say YUM!!!!!!
This soup is so creamy and yummy and delicious and delectable and scrumptious and just down right good.

(This recipe serves about 5-6)
Ingredients

• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup flour (sift the flower before so that there are no clumps)
• 2 cups half-and-half ( or skim milk)
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 pound fresh broccoli ( florets only)
• 1 cup carrots, julienne
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 8 ounces grated cheddar cheese

Instructions

1. Saute onions in a little butter in a small pan – set aside. You are going to want to chop your onions into a medium-small dice.
2. In a large stockpot melt butter. Add flour and mix for 3 minutes. Make sure to add your flower a little at a time stirring in- you want this to be a smooth as possible (remember this is the base for your soup you dont want a clumpy floury soup base)
3. Slowly add half- half – mixing the entire time. To make this soup stretch a little more I added 1/2 of water after the half and half. (At this point I also added a little dried basil to my mix just for extra flavor and because I like basil :)
4. Slowly add chicken stock- mixing the entire time. I personally didnt use like a chicken stock, I used that chicken broth powder mix stuff you get in the little glass jars. I mixed up 3 cups of warm water with 3 teaspoons of chicken broth powder then added that. (in case you havent noticed, I really do like to not follow instructions) You want to make sure that you stir this in completely and that your stock/broth is not separating from the flour and milk mixture
5. Let simmer on low for 20 minutes. This is when the yumminess starts to happen and your soup base will start getting really good 
6. Add broccoli, carrots; onions and cook on low for 25 minutes. I added extra broccoli because I love broccoli and wanted to really make this soup stretch. I also used about the top half of the stems of the broccoli but chopped them up small. I am def. not a waster when it comes to food and I like to use as much of the vegetable that I can.
7. Season with salt, pepper; nutmeg. (the nutmeg is so so yummy :)
8. Place soup in a blender or use an immersion blender and puree. (I didn't do this step because I like more chunky veggies in my soup generally, but I did dice my veggies pretty small so I wouldn't really have needed to blend it anyways)
9. Heat soup over low heat and add cheese and mix till melted.
10. Serve ( hopefully in a bread bowl) and Enjoy 

When I did this I did the recipe 1 1/2 times and made a large pot of this thinking it would be my lunch for the rest of the week. NOPE!!!!! Didnt even last that night!. My roommates and I cleaned that pan. I am totally not lying to you when I say this recipe is GOLDEN!!!!! You will love it just as much as my roomma