Piping hot soup
It’s been a while since we put a recipe up, but I managed to bring back a block of stilton cheese to Germany and this soup turned out too good not to share.
Ingredients
- 1 large head or 2 medium heads of broccoli
- 1 large onion or 2 medium onions
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 leek
- Around 200 g (one wedge) stilton
- Herbs (I used basil, thyme and tarragon)
- Optional: cream to garnish
Equipment
- 2 large pots
- 1 sieve
- 1 stick blender
Method
- Cut the florets off the broccoli (keep the stems!), slice the leek (keep the tips!) and chop up the onion (keep the ends!). Cut the stilton into reasonably small pieces (keep the rind!)
- Put the broccoli stems, leek leaves, onion off-cuts and stilton rind in a pot with 1.5 litre of boiling water to make a stock. Simmer for 20 minutes.
- In another large pot, sweat the chopped onions, leek and garlic with the herbs, pepper and salt on a low hear.
- Once the stock has simmered, take the broccoli stems out. Let them cool a bit, and then use a knife to cut off any small sprouts and leaves. Cut them into smallish pieces. Drain the stock through a sieve into the other pot. Discard the leek, onion and stilton cuttings.
- Add the broccoli florets and stems and simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Take the soup off the boil and blend it smooth.
- Put a little bit of stilton to one side for a garnish. Add the rest to the soup. Briefly blend to mix the soup through.
- If the soup seems too thick, dilute with a little cream. Taste – add more salt if necessary (it shouldn’t need much, since the cheese is also salty).
- Serve, crumbling the left over stilton on top as a garnish.