Cheddar and Broccoli Soup

Cost Per Serving – £0.45

It is winter, we have had snow and its time to think of those winter warming meals. Soup is a delicious and nutritious meal that can be enjoyed any time of day, serve with some homemade wholemeal bread and butter for a really filling meal.

I am fortunate enough to have a soup maker, I bought it on a whim a long time ago when it was this time of year and all I wanted to eat at lunch was soup. I looked at tinned soups and those in the chilled section most lunch time trips to the supermarket. The chilled soups lacked flavour and in my opinion were too expensive for what they were and I never really fancied any of the tinned selection. Don’t get me wrong I love Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup. I always have a tin or 4 in my cupboard. Tomato soup isn’t something I would make myself as for me the Heinz version is perfection but for all other vegetable soups I love to experiment and see what I can make.

I wanted to make a broccoli soup because broccoli is such a nutritious vegetable. Broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable. It is high in vitamin C, Iron, Vitamin K and Potassium and is a good source of fibre & what could be better than adding this amazing vegetable to a soup with some delicious extra mature Cheddar cheese.

The picture today is from a soup i retrieved from the freezer for lunch. I left it to defrost overnight in the fridge, added a little water and heated on the hob. It was actually still a bit thick so I gave it a quick whizz in the blender before heating. Traditionally this soup should be Broccoli and Stilton but I think at the time of cooking I didn’t have any Stilton in and I was trying to make something with what I had in stock in the fridge and cupboards. I always have Cheddar cheese in the fridge so the decision for Broccoli and Cheddar stemmed from there.

I used my soup maker to make this but you can easily make in a pan. Both sets of instructions are below.

1 Onion – £0.17
1 Potato – £0.11
1 tsp Lazy Garlic – £0.10
750ml Vegetable Stock – £0.20
salt and pepper to taste £0.02
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg – £0.06
1 Large Head Broccoli – £0.50
125g Extra Mature Cheddar Cheese – £0.63

Total Cost – £1.79
Cost Per Serving – £0.45 (Serves 4)

Soup Maker

1) Peel and chop the onion, chop the broccoli into florets and chop the stalk, add to the soup maker. Add the stock, garlic, salt & pepper & Nutmeg. Set the soup maker to the smooth function.

2) Once the soup maker has finished check consistency, it can be quite thick so blend further if required.

3) Stir in grated cheese until melted.

4) Blend once more until smooth.

Hob

1) Peel and chop the onion and cook in a pan with a splash of oil for 3-4 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute.

2) Chop the broccoli into florets and chop the stalk, add the stock, salt and pepper and nutmeg to the pan and cook until broccoli is cooked through.

3) Using a stick blender, carefully blend the soup until smooth

4) Stir in grated cheese until melted

5) Blend once more until smooth

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