Broccoli Cheddar Soup

It’s soup season! One of my favorite foods to eat in the colder seasons is soup. I love a nice warm soup on a cold day. Plus, soups aren’t too complicated to prepare. As much as I love Panera’s broccoli cheddar soup, I think it is cheaper to make a soup from scratch.  I found a really good recipe called Famous Broccoli Cheddar Soup. It really is a good soup to try. The prep time is thirty minutes and the cook time is 40 minutes. The recipe I am using says it feeds 4-6 people, so if you plan to use this for a larger crowd or would like leftovers (like I do), I would go ahead and double the recipe.

           For this recipe you will need the following ingredients: 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter, 1 small chopped onion, ¼ cup flour, 2 cups half-and-half, 3 cups chicken broth, 2 bay leaves, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, salt, pepper, 4 cups of broccoli florets,1 large diced carrot, and 2 ½ cups grated sharp white and yellow cheddar cheeses.  Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender (took me 5 minutes). Whisk in the flour and cook until a light golden color, then gradually whisk in the half-and-half until smooth. After that you will add the chicken broth, bay leaves and nutmeg and season with salt and pepper to your liking and bring to a simmer. Lower the heat to medium-low and cook until thickened, about 20 minutes. Finally, add the broccoli and carrot pieces to the broth mixture and simmer about 20 minutes or until they are as tender as you would like. Puree the soup in batches in a blender until smooth and creamy and then put it all back in the pot. The last part is to add the cheese. Add your preferred amount of cheese and stir until melted and then you have your homemade Panera Bread soup! If you want to make your soup just a little more over the top for your guests, you can serve it in bread bowls. All you do for the bowls is take round sourdough bread loaves and cut a hole in the top and add your soup. I like the bread bowls because it’s just a little nicer than having soup in your traditional glass bowl. Yum!