Creamy Broccoli Soup with Cheddar Crisps

It is that time of year again - soup!!! Mmm, how I love soups, stews, and chili.

This weekend I pulled a recipe out of an old Food and Wine magazine - Creamy Broccoli Soup with Cheddar Crisps.


Now if I would have read the soup recipe before putting in in my recipe file, I never would have chosen it. Onion, celery, garlic, broccoli, and water...that's it. Not even salt and pepper? That sounds like the blandest soup ever. So of course I changed it up and came up with the following:


Soup Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 white onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 heads of broccoli, chopped into florets
• 6 c vegetable broth
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1/4 c heavy cream

Directions

• Heat olive oil in a soup pot
• Add onions, garlic, and celery. Saute until soft, about 7 minutes.
• Add broccoli and broth; bring to a simmer until broccoli is tender, about 15 minutes.
• Transfer everything to a blender (in batches) and puree until smooth.
• Return to the pot and season with the salt, black pepper, and white pepper.
• Add cream and bring to a slow simmer. Serve with cheddar crisps.

Cheddar Crisps

Crispy little wafers of cheddar to garnish the soup - sounds good to me. But again, the Food and Wine recipe was way off. The directions say to bake them on 400 for 18 minutes... I put a tray in the oven and set my timer to check them in 9 minutes. After only 9 minutes, half of the advised cooking time, the crisps were black.

So I tried again - 7 minutes is the magic time.

What I liked about these crisps was how they harden as they cool, so you can form them into different shapes.

I'd love to use these as a cup for a small salad by pushing them around a mug or cup, but with Parmesan like these crisps I made once to garnish mashed potatoes.