Broccoli & Cheddar Soup

There are many soups which benefit from long slow cooking, my tomato soup click here for the recipe is a good example. This soup however requires little cooking and is ready in a comparatively short time. As with most soups this produces an optimum result from very few ingredients. There are many good cheddar type cheeses on the market, Lincolnshire Poacher and Godmanchester being two of my favourites. The better quality the cheese the happier you will be with the result. In this recipe I use leeks, sadly under used in my opinion, they provide all the nutritional benefits of onions, with a gentler flavour, easy to prepare and good value for money.

For this recipe you will need;
250g of sprouting broccoli
250g of trimmed leeks
220g of good quality, full flavoured cheddar
70g of cream cheese
1 egg yolk
1, 1/2 litres of vegetable stock
1 tablespoon of sofrito click here for the recipe
1 teaspoon of light olive oil
1/3 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg nutmeg
white pepper

Begin by sweating the chopped up leeks in the olive oil, along with the sofrito in a large saucepan for 5 minutes. Add the vegetable stock and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the broccoli and bring the stock back up to the boil. Simmer for a further 3 or 4 minutes only until the stems of the broccoli are tender. Any further cooking and you will lose the fresh green colour in the finished soup. Add the pepper and nutmeg.
Being very careful, since blending any hot liquids requires care, blend the soup in a jug blender in two batches, blending half of the cheddar and cream cheese with both, Add the egg yolk to one of the batches. I find removing the central part of the lid and holding a tea towel on the lid while I switch on at the lowest speed is the best way of avoiding hot soup brusting out all over the kitchen. Return the soup to the pan and very slowly bring it back up to just below simmering point. Serve with crusty bread.

Notes:
This soup requires careful reheating, bring it up to just below simmering slowly and don't overheat.