Who doesn’t love a good soup, especially when the weather is miserable outside?
The changing of the seasons is the perfect time to get into the kitchen and whip up some delicious soup creations, and there’s certainly no shortage of recipes out there.
The appeal of soup really lies in its simplicity. Most of the time, all you need to do is chop up some vegetables and leave them to bubble away in the stock until it’s ready to serve.
So for my first soup of the season, I decided to try out a viral recipe I’d seen on TikTok, boasting a whopping 12 million views and thousands of likes.
Shared by @cookwithauds, the broccoli and cheddar soup looked like the perfect indulgent comfort meal to enjoy all the way through this autumn and winter.
Packed with nutrients in the form of broccoli and carrots, with the indulgence of a good helping of cheddar cheese, it certainly ticked all the boxes of a good comfort meal.
And after making it myself, I can confirm that this has truly taken the top spot of the best soups I’ve ever made.
It was easy, tasty, indulgent and made plenty of portions – which tasted even better in the following days. The chef had opted to top hers with crispy bacon too, for an extra kick of flavour.
Here’s everything you need to make the soup – which made four portions – and the process you need to follow.
Method
First of all, you’ll want to prep all your vegetables. Dice the onion, crush the garlic, roughly chop the broccoli – including the stalk – and grate the carrots.
Then, to a large pot with a lid, add a generous drizzle of olive oil and the butter, allowing it to melt over a medium heat.
Add in the onions and allow them to soften for a couple of minutes, making sure to stir them well before seasoning with salt, pepper, garlic granules and onion granules – I used about one teaspoon each of the seasonings.
Give this a good mix again before adding in the garlic too.
After about 30 seconds, add in the flour. This is where I think I went slightly wrong – I don’t think I added enough, so it didn’t thicken up as much as I would have liked.
Then, give it another stir before gradually adding in the stock. I used two vegetable stock cubes, dissolved in 800ml of boiling water.
Cover the pot up and leave it to cook on a medium low heat for around 15 minutes. This is where I put the oven on to make a garlic baguette – because what’s the point of soup without some delicious carbs to go with it?
Afterwards, add the milk and cream to the pot and then slowly add in the grated cheese. I used around 250g of grated extra mature, but made sure to leave some to sprinkle on top of the soup when it came to serving.
At this point, you can season to taste, before adding in the chopped broccoli and grated carrots.
Pop the lid back on and leave to cook for another 10 minutes, or until the broccoli has cooked. Once it’s done, divide up into bowls, sprinkle some extra cheese on top, and serve with your warm garlic bread.
