Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup

Comfort food at its absolute best - this Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup is the best way to eat your daily greens, but with a little hint of indulgence! So butter your bread folks and let's dig in!

What makes this recipe that little bit special is roasting the broccoli. As it adds an extra depth and complexity of flavour.

Truly great soup is achieved with little additions like this one. However, if you want to speed up the process of making the soup, you can cook the broccoli with the rest of the soup in the pot. So although it's not wholly necessary, I wouldn't recommend skipping this step.

What Blue Cheese Can I Use In Broccoli Soup?

Stilton is the traditional choice in Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup. This is because its creamy, sharp and salty flavour creates a rich and decadent taste that compliments the slightly bittersweet flavour of the broccoli.

Other blue cheeses you can use:

• Saint Agur
• Gorgonzola
• Roquefort 
• Cashel Blue
• Lanark Blue and many more!

Ingredients for Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup

• Dairy: Salted butter, milk, blue cheese (stilton) and crème fraiche 
• Vegetables: Onion, celery and broccoli
• Other ingredients: Stock and seasoning

How to make Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup

Pre heat oven to 200C. Roughly chop whole broccolis (stem and all) and place on a lined baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 20 minutes. It's not essential to roast the broccoli, but it adds to the depth of flavour, and it's what makes this recipe stand out.

Roughly chop celery and onion then add to soup pot with butter to soften (5 - 10 minutes). Dissolve vegetable stock cubes in water. Add roasted broccoli to soup pot with blue cheese and crème fraiche.

Pour in the milk and vegetable stock- bring to the boil (until it just starts bubbling) then reduce to a simmer and cook on medium heat (with lid on) for 30 minutes. Blend with hand blender (or in a food processor) until smooth

Serve the soup with some crunchy croutons, crumbled stilton cheese with a final drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Consistency Not Quite To Your Preference?

I've purposefully left this soup quite thick in texture, as it's easier to thin down a thick soup to suit individual preferences.

Some people like their Broccoli and Blue Cheese soup thick enough to stick to a spoon, and others want a more liquid texture (like my Dad).

Therefore, I added a little hot water to achieve the consistency he wanted. You could also add milk or some more vegetable stock if preferred. This also means the soup 'goes further' and you'd get more portions out of it.

Storage and Reheating

Storage

The Broccoli and Blue Cheese soup can be kept in the:

• fridge for 5 days
• frozen for 4 months

Re-Heating

The soup can be re-heated directly from frozen, or after defrosting in the fridge overnight. Heat either in the microwave or in a pot on the hob/stovetop until piping hot throughout before serving.