This soup is luxurious.
Cheesy and creamy and so incredibly hearty and delicious. If the
thought of bacon and cheese has you crying for a healthier soup,
well, let your woes be gone! The ten cups (ten cups!) of vegetables
in this soup should put your mind at ease. Not that vegetables
literally cut calories, but we can all agree they are good for your
body and soul.
And if I’m eating
a soup with ten cups of vegetables hidden in the depths, you better
believe I’m going to throw in some cheese and bacon, too. It
just seems like the right thing to do.
Like classic
broccoli cheese soup on steroids, here’s what
you’ll get with this loaded broccoli cheese bacon soup:
fabulous cheesy flavor with tender bits of broccoli as well as salty
pieces of bacon and gobs of tender carrots, celery and potatoes
bathed in a silky, creamy soup.
We have officially
declared this our new favorite soup of the fall season. I think it
was the first meal in a while that I didn’t even need to rinse
the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher because the bowls
were scraped perfectly clean. And that was after most of us had
seconds.
I employed the boys
help with all the chopping of the vegetables and spent the entire
meal hearing them declare: “Hey, I just ate one of the carrots
I chopped!” to which another child would quickly
respond “Nuh-uh, I chopped that one.” Sigh. At least they
ate well. I would have declared this the Ultimate Perfect
Miracle-of-all-Miracles Soup if there had been no quibbling at
dinner. Still on the hunt for that one…
Loaded Broccoli Cheese and Bacon Soup
Yield: Serves 8
You could easily use
turkey bacon here, especially since the bacon grease is drained
before proceeding with the recipe. Alternately, if you like to live
life on the edge, you can use the bacon grease for the base of the
white sauce and omit the butter (just make sure you have at least 3
tablespoons, otherwise, supplement with butter).
This soup is definitely
on the thicker side of things; if you want a thinner soup, consider
decreasing the broccoli by half (only using 2 cups or so) or adding
additional broth at the beginning or the end.
Ingredients:
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup peeled and chopped carrots, diced small
1 cup chopped celery, diced small
3 cups peeled and chopped potatoes, diced small
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
4-5 cups broccoli crowns, diced small (about 2 heads of broccoli)
In a large saucepan, combine the
chicken broth, carrots, celery, potatoes and onion. Bring the
mixture to a boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes, until the
vegetables are starting to get tender.
Add the chopped broccoli. Cover
and simmer for another 10 minutes. The pan is going to be very full
of vegetables and it might seem like it isn't "soupy"
enough since the vegetables overpower the broth. but I promise it
will all work out when you add the cheese mixture.
In a separate medium saucepan,
sauté the bacon until golden and crisp. Remove the bacon to a
paper towel-lined plate. Drain the grease and wipe out the saucepan.
Melt the butter (in the same
saucepan you cooked the bacon in) over medium heat. Whisk in the
flour and cook for 1-2 minutes until golden, stirring constantly.
Gradually whisk in the milk and cook until the mixture is bubbling
and is slightly thickened, 5-7 minutes.
Stir in the cheddar cheese one
handful at a time, adding another handful after the cheese that has
been added has melted. Stir in the salt, pepper and dry mustard.
Slowly stir the cheese sauce into
the hot broth and vegetables, whisking to combine well. Stir in the
reserved bacon and add additional salt and pepper to taste, if
needed. If you want the soup a bit thinner, stir in a little extra
broth or milk a bit at a time until you get the consistency you are
looking for.
Recipe Source:
Adapted from a recipe my sister-in-law, Melissa, sent me by way of
her friend Meredith (thanks, Meliss!). I made a ton of changes:
decreased butter from 8 tablespoons to 3, increased liquid and used
broth instead of water, used real cheese instead of Velveeta and
changed up the quantities of vegetables, to name a few.
Melanie Gunnell is a food-loving, chocolate-obsessed mom who has a desperate need to share
her favorite tried-and-true recipes with the world. In a past life she graduated from Brigham
Young University with a degree in public health, but for the past ten years, stay-at-home
motherhood has been her job along with blogging-from-home for the past five.
She resides in the brilliantly cold tundra of Northern Minnesota with her husband and their brood
of five children: four boys and one tiny, bossy girl. Dark chocolate (particularly the act of
shoving chocolate chips in her mouth whilst hiding in the pantry) is her coping skill of choice for
both the never-ending winters and the never-ending wrestling matches in her front room.