Broccoli cream soup

It is one of the first cream soups that I’ve tried to make at home, so probably that is why is stays one of my favorites.

Its color is vibrant, the texture is smooth and creamy. I like to eat it mostly in winter, when it’s cold outside, but if you add more water or cream and make it less thick, it is perfect anytime.

To be honest, usually I am not even bothering with leaving some broccoli florets for garnish, we eat the soup only with croutons and some sprinkles of hard cheese like Parmigianino or Grana Padano. You can make some toast and put a little bit of olive oil; this is also one of the options that I usually do. You could be creative, and make this soup adding your twist to this dish.

It is super healthy, super good for your stomach and you can actually do this recipe with any other kind of vegetables of your choice.

Ingredients:

• 500 gr frozen broccoli
• 500 gr fresh broccoli
• 1 small onion pealed
• 2 potatoes cut into cubes
• 1 l of water
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 100 ml chicken broth (I used frozen cubes, that I have made earlier)
• 1 tbsp flour
• 4 tbsp sour cream
• 150 ml cream
• 100 ml milk
• 2-3 gloves of crushed garlic
• a pinch of salt, white pepper, nutmeg
• a little bit of lemon juice

Instructions:

1. Boil the water, add some salt and put inside the fresh broccoli florets. Boil until for a few minutes and take out the half of the florets and put into a bowl with cold water. later on we will use them as decoration and as a part of our soup garnish.
2. Add the frozen broccoli florets, the potato cubes, the whole onion, the vegetable stock cube and the chicken broth (cubes). Cook on a medium heat until the vegetables are tender, for about 20-30 minutes.
3. At the same time to thicken the soup add into a big glass 1 tbsp of flour, 4 tbsp of sour cream, mixt it a little bit. Then add the half of the cream and the half of the milk.
4. Place the soup to a very low heat or take it away from your stove for a while. Pull out the onion and blend all the ingredients with a hand blender.
5. Put it back to the stove to a medium heat and add the smooth mixture that you previously made to the soup. Stir continually.
6. Add the crushed garlic and the spiced to your taste. Add the other half of the cream and milk to reach the creamy texture. If necessary, you can blend it up one more time to get rid of any possible knots.
7. Put a little bit of lemon juice at the end.
8. Decorate with broccoli florets, any type of nuts, cranberries, pumpkin seed oil and croutons.