Cream of Broccoli Soup

Time to reflect a bit on where I have come from and where I am going. It has been six months since I started blogging. At that time I never knew what a blog was or about all the food blogging going on. Thanks to Julie at democralypsenow  for acquainting me to the blogging world. Her advice to the audience "blog about what you know." That is exactly what I did.

As a food stylist I work on sets with other stylists preparing beautiful food for advertising. In a suburban kitchen I prepare what my family likes, experiment with recipes and create new ones. 


I love photographing food in my kitchen especially when the light is perfect. Light is everything. When we cook there is a story. I try to be conscious of that, the story. 


In my kitchen there is no art director or any one telling me what looks good. This is a blessing and maybe at times a curse because you are Hans Solo. I think this one comes from cousin Liz.
So blog I will out into the cybersphere and hopefully people will come to visit and hang out and talk food.

Today I am making broccoli soup. Cream of to be exact. I opened the vegetable drawer, as we call it, and noticed it was brimming with broccoli. It was a no brainer as to what to do with it. This soup is easy and it is wonderfully satisfying and high in fiber as you can imagine. This recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks and it may be one of the first ones in my library. It is Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook. What I like about this book is the simplicity. The book has no photos, no bells and whistles but what it does have is great recipes. Every one I have made has not disappointed. This cream of broccoli soup tastes just like it should. Smooth, creamy and comforting to the core. Grab your favorite baquette for dipping and you have a meal.

You can make it vegetarian as Mollie does or you can substitute chicken broth for the water and adjust the seasonings.

As with all recipes they are guides. Feel free to make them your own and make notes. You may find you like what you did better. Or not.

smart phone shot

This is the base recipe I used.
The changes I made are I omitted the dried thyme because I had fresh lemon thyme in my garden. I also omitted the basil.
For the milk I used 1 cup whole milk and one cup heavy cream. I liked the richer flavor of the cream.

This soup is not super thin or thick. If you like a thicker soup you could make a roux. To me the viscosity was perfect. Mollie suggested garnishing with some steamed broccoli florets. I like this idea a lot. It adds dimension and makes a nice accoutrement.

Another garnish idea is fresh thyme. I have this fragrant lemon thyme in the garden and it is perfect for this soup.
Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think. Would love to hear from you.