Broccoli Cheese Soup

As soon as I saw this post go up on The Pioneer Woman's cooking blog I knew I had to try it. I immediately thought of one of my friends who always gets this soup at Panera where we frequently go (or used to go back when I was a workin' gal) for lunch dates. I made a few changes, but overall the soup was quite tasty! I think next time I might play with the cheese combinations a bit, but this was definitely a great first attempt (as there was no meat this didn't get a high rating from The Husband as you can imagine, but I gave it a solid 4 on my side!)

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

Serves 6

1 small onion, diced

4 Tbsp butter

1/4 lb carrots, diced

3/4 lb broccoli florets

2 1/2 Tbsp flour

2 cups skim milk

1 cup whole milk

1 tsp seasoned salt

Pinch of nutmeg

6 oz grated cheese (I used 3 oz pepper jack and 3 oz sharp cheddar)

2 oz Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Melt butter in dutch oven over medium heat and saute onions and carrots until soft.
2. Sprinkle flour on top and allow to cook out a few minutes before whisking in the milk.
3. Add nutmeg, seasoned salt, salt (just a little, it's best to adjust later based on your cheese selections and the salt tolerance level of your home), pepper, and broccoli.
4. Cover and reduce heat allowing the contents to simmer for 30 minutes or until broccoli is tender.
5. *Using a slotted spoon remove the broccoli and carrot bites and give them a whirl in a food processor (or blender, but my blender long-since burned itself up and died).
6. Transfer the broccoli (thick) puree back to the pot, add in the cheeses, and allow to melt (you may need to thin out the soup using chicken stock to get your desired consistency).
7. Adjust the seasoning to your liking and serve in a bread bowl if you're feeling fancy!

*You don't have to do this step or you can do a variation of this step (using a potato masher, immersion blender, etc.) I used my food processor because it was already out and dirty from shredding the cheeses so I figured, why not? I do think the broccoli needs broken up though as the broccoli to "broth" ratio is sort of skewed and in my head it is weird to just eat a running creamed broccoli instead of a legit soup. To each their own!