How to Make Broccoli-Cheese Soup Bright and Flavorful | America’s Test Kitchen

Broccoli-Cheese Soup can be tricky to make, as the vegetable can lose its color and flavor during the cooking process. But our recipe shows you how to avoid that with a bit of kitchen science, giving you a fresh and bright soup with plenty of flavor.

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– Broccoli cheese soup
sounds like such a good idea. It’s a beloved combination
that works to top your potato or sit beside some roast chicken, but when it’s pureed into
soup, it often loses its flavor and color in the process. I’ll show you how to cook the
broccoli to develop its flavor and soften its texture,
as well as how to bring bright green color back to the soup. By the way, this lesson is
from our Classic Soups class out now on ATK Classes on the
America’s Test Kitchen app. In this class, you’ll
learn some great tips for building flavor and
texture in your soup. We’ll take a look at
equipment and ingredients you’ll wanna have on hand, and you’ll learn the best
and safest ways to store and reheat soup. Then you’ll put your
skills to work pureeing and seasoning your way
through some classic soups. Learn at your own pace and
have fun while you do it. But first, let’s make some soup! Broccoli has two distinct parts to it. It has a sturdy stem
that holds the plant up and it has the more tender
florets that are flower buds. This means it’s kinda like
having two vegetables in one and we’re gonna have to
treat them differently. So to start with, I’m gonna
take off the florets at the top. So we want our florets
to be in one-inch pieces. This is important because
we need them to cook at the same rate and the
way that we cut the stems and the way that we cut the
florets is gonna make it so they can all go in
the pot at the same time. So I’m gonna use a ruler
just to measure my first one so I get a nice one-inch
piece, so I’ll cut it in half. This is just gonna be my sample. That is a one-inch piece. I’m gonna put it right up there so I know what one-inch pieces look like and then I’ll go through
the rest of these. I like to keep a sample in front of me because it’s so easy to
forget how big an inch is and it is really important
that they stay the same size. So I’m gonna keep that piece right there in front of me for reference. So I’ll keep going until all my florets are in one-inch pieces. So I have some broccoli dust here, but I don’t want this to go to waste ’cause this also can
add flavor to our soup, so I’ll use a bench scraper
and add it to our bowl. Now it’s time to work with the stock. The first thing I’m
gonna do is have a look at this dry end here. This is how it looks in the supermarket. I’m just gonna trim off
this little dry piece and put that away. And now we need to peel
our broccoli stalk. I have a Y-peeler here, and I’m gonna just take the outside peels that are gonna be rough and add sort of a different texture. The peels will have a
hard time breaking down, so I’m just gonna get rid of them to reveal the softer core inside. We’re cutting these
into quarter-inch coins so that they’ll cook at the same rate as our one-inch florets. I’m gonna check our quarter-inch
slice just to make sure that it’s a quarter inch so I can use it as a reference just like
I did with the floret. We’ll leave our
quarter-inch slice up there and have the rest of
them at that same size. Yes indeed. And then I’ll do the same with the rest of the two pounds of broccoli. Broccoli soup can be dull and stodgy, but ours is gonna be bright,
and vibrant, and delicious. We’re gonna start with
two tablespoons of butter melted over medium high
heat in a Dutch oven. The broccoli isn’t the only flavor we’re gonna have in our soup. We also have some aromatics
like garlic and onion. We have a little bit of cayenne pepper. We’re gonna put it all in the
pot without any liquid in it yet so that we can use the high
heat to extract the flavor. This is gonna give us a strong
flavor base for our soup. Our butter’s melted so I
can start building flavor. I’m gonna start with an onion. This is one onion rough chopped. It’s okay because it’s
all going into a blender. We’re making soup, so don’t be too fussy about how exactly your onion looks. I’ve also minced up some garlic. This is two cloves of garlic. We minced them up so that we could have the largest surface area of garlic to extract the most flavor
in a short amount of time. Then I’m adding a pinch of cayenne. That’s gonna toast in the butter and give a nice little
flavor balance in our soup. And I have a teaspoon and
a half of dry mustard. This is gonna be a really
nice savory backbone. You might think broccoli and
mustard don’t go together, but mustard is an ingredient here. A teaspoon and a half in soup
is gonna really heighten it. And lastly, I have a teaspoon of salt. And the star of our show. Here comes our two pounds of broccoli. Remember when we cut them
all to the same sizes? Well, here they come. Everybody in the pot together. We’re gonna stir you around. We’re using the heat to extract flavor. Remember that once we add liquid to here, the whole thing stays just a
little bit above 200 degrees. So we’re using the hot pot
first to extract flavor out of these and then we’ll
cool it down by adding liquid. Now we don’t wanna brown
our vegetables here, we want to soften them. So it’s important to stir
it every now and then, keep it moving. We just want to cook
this till it’s fragrant and that should take about six minutes. I am super happy with what’s happening
in this pan right now. The broccoli florets and the stems seem to all be breaking down
at relatively the same speed. We’ve used the heat to
extract some of the flavor. And now I’m gonna add some water. I’m using a cup of water here. And then I’m gonna add
a surprise ingredient. This is a quarter teaspoon of baking soda. This baking soda is gonna
change the pH of the water and it’s gonna help these
vegetables break down quicker. That means that our soup
is not gonna be stodgy and it’s not gonna be overcooked because the baking soda,
it’s just a quarter teaspoon, so it won’t give any
off flavor to the soup. But the quarter teaspoon of baking soda will break these guys down. That means our soup doesn’t get overcooked and stays fresh and green. I brought our vegetables to a simmer. Now I’m gonna turn it down to medium low. We wanna keep it at just a simmer and cover it for about 20 minutes. I’m gonna go in once and stir
it about halfway through. It’s been 20 minutes,
so let’s have a look. Make sure it’s nicely broken down. Oh, yes it is. All right, we’re using two
cups of chicken broth here. You could also use your
own homemade stock, or if you like to keep it
vegetarian, use vegetable broth. And then I’m gonna add two cups of water. This half and half combination
gives us a lot of flavor without giving us a lot of meatiness. I’ll turn up the heat to medium high and bring this to a simmer. My soup has come up to a simmer now, and as you can see, it’s
gotten a little dull because it’s cooked for 20 minutes. So I’m gonna give you a tip about how you can make your green soups green. I have two ounces of spinach here. Since this has come to a simmer, I don’t really wanna cook the spinach. I really just wanna wilt it because we’re using it for color. There’s a little vegetal flavor in there, but mostly it’s just for color. So I’m gonna put this in
for less than a minute until it just wilts. The pot looks so much greener already. It’s not even pureed yet. Let’s turn this off. Our spinach is wilted and
it’s time to get blending. We like to blend our soups half at a time. By overfilling the blender,
we would make a mess. And also the soup on top
would barely touch the blades while the soup on the bottom
might become over pureed. So let me just get about half of this in and we’ll move over to the blender. We’ve talked a lot about the broccoli, but this is broccoli cheese soup, so let’s talk about the cheese. We’re using two different
types of cheese here. I have three ounces of
shredded sharp cheddar and an ounce and a half of grated parm. The cheddar adds a mildly cheesy flavor, but it also adds texture to the soup. Parmesan has a salty, savory flavor that’s really gonna enhance the cheesy flavor of the cheddar. We wanna blend our soup as efficiently and safely as possible, so I’m gonna take the
center out of my lid, make sure it’s a nice tight fitting lid. I’m holding a kitchen
towel tight over this lid. The porous towel will let the steam out, but keep my hands safe from any splatters. We’ll puree this until smooth
and it’ll take about a minute. (blender whirring) There’s a minute. I’m just gonna empty this into a bowl, blend the other half, and combine them back in the Dutch oven. Now that we’re all together in the pot, I’m gonna turn the heat to medium and bring it up to a simmer. We don’t wanna cook it anymore, we’re just gonna heat it back up. At this point you have a decision to make. You can adjust the consistency of the soup with up to a cup of water, and it just depends on
personal preference. Some people like a much thicker soup and some people like it
a little bit thinner. So I’m gonna just add about
a quarter of a cup of water to mine ’cause I want to
thin it down a little bit. I like that consistency. We’ve spent all this time making our soup, but we don’t know if it’s
quite right until we taste it. So I’m just gonna take a
little scoop of it here. I’m gonna adjust it a little bit. I’m gonna add a little bit of salt. A little pepper. Try this one more time. Nice. That is just perfect. It’s time to serve it up. And just one last step, I’m gonna sprinkle a little
Parmesan over the top, and see what we made. Mmm. Fresh flavor, bright color, broccoli forward, cheese forward. Broccoli cheese soup. The best pureed soups have
a silky, creamy texture that can only be achieved by
fully cooking the vegetables. Sometimes they need a helping hand, and baking soda can be the key. And who needs cream when
you have two cheeses adding richness and nutty flavor? Not this soup. Now that you know how to
make a cheesy broccoli soup, you’re ready to take the next step. And with ATK Classes, you’ll
get access to a wide variety of lessons filled with masterful
techniques, helpful videos, and step-by-step photos, from knife skills and making hand rolled pasta, to baking and frosting incredible
cakes, and so much more. Download the America’s Test Kitchen app and start learning with ATK Classes today.