Cream Of Anything Soup. It Hit The Spot.

With the weather being so cold out, I thought a nice soup would be in order for tonight and cream of broccoli came to mind, although it could be cream of anything. The method is the same. Just change the ingredients for something different.

In the foreground, I have peeled and chopped broccoli and carrots, chopped onions, green beans, and celery, and sliced mushrooms. Had I been thinking, I probably would have added in a diced potato. In the background, I have heavy cream, milk, cheddar cheese, chicken stock, butter, flour, chopped parsley and chopped celery leaves.

Note to self: Hurry up and make your own chicken consommee.

I melted a bit of butter in my pan and added the beans and carrots, sauteing for about 1 minute.

Then the broccoli and mushrooms went in and sauteed for another minute. Tasted and added salt and pepper.

Celery and onions for another minute. Always be aware of the cooking times of the various vegetables you will be using and add them to your pot accordingly. Had I used potato in this dish, that would have gone in first.

Flour went in next - maybe 3 tablespoons - and I cooked it for about 2 minutes ...

... before adding in the chicken stock, slowly, stirring the whole time.

Let the soup thicken a bit before adding more stock.

After the can of stock went in, I added a little cream for richness, and because, this is cream of broccoli soup. And I didn't use the milk at all.

I poured the soup into a bowl, grated some cheddar cheese on top, sprinkled some minced parsley and celery leaves over it, and tossed in some oyster crackers.

Here's Mr. Hawthorne's bowl so you can see all the goodness close up.

This was perfect. Rich, creamy soup. Lovely vegetables. Crisp crackers. The fresh greenness of parsley and celery leaves.

And here's Rosie's bowl. Like I said before, I've given you the method. What you do with it is up to you. This could have been just a cream of mushroom soup, or a cream of celery soup, or a cream of potato soup, or just a cream of broccoli soup. I wanted a cream of everything soup.

This was sooooo good. A perfect meal on a cold, cold day. And it took me all of maybe 15-20 minutes. Take that, Rachael!

And guess what? Mr. Hawthorne used the "D" word again. And that would be DELICIOUS. Because it was.