Cheese soup is now healthy! What?! There is a God, and He has a plan for us after all.
For The Carrots
Roughly chop the carrots and place them into a small pot with enough water to cover them. Bring them to a boil. Boil until soft, approximately 10 minutes.
In a blender add the carrots and enough water to cover them. Blend on high for 3 minutes or until smooth. Set aside.
The Soup
Dice the onions and garlic, cube the potatoes, broccoli and set aside.
In a big pot, add the onion, minced garlic cloves, and oil. Sauté on medium heat for 5 minutes until the onions are softened.
In a separate bowl combine 1/4 C. flour and 1/4 C. water. Stir while getting out clumps as best as you can. Add to the pot. Stir continuously for 30 seconds and don’t panic if it clumps.
Add 4 cups of water or veggie broth and stir to incorporate the flour, smoothing the mixture out. Add the carrot puree. Then add the rest of the water/broth slowly until the desired consistency has been reached.
Add the potatoes, broccoli, thyme, oregano and pepper and bring to a simmer. No need to chop the herbs, just throw them in, stems and all. You can pick them stems out when the soup is done cooking or just leave them in, making sure people don’t get sticks in their food.
Simmer until the potatoes are softened, about 15 minutes.
Once the potatoes and carrots have softened turn off the heat and add the half and half and cheeses.
Add salt to taste, making sure to bring out the flavors boldly.
My family loves eating this with a slice of toasted homemade sourdough bread, and a side salad.
Carrots are such an amazing and versatile ingredient. When cooked and blended up, they add this amazingly rich and velvety texture to the soup. Not only that, but they are good for you! And, to those with picky eaters, they won’t know the difference.
The other wonderful benefit to this is that you don’t need as much cheese and cream as conventional cheese soup. The carrots create that creamy texture that most of us are looking for. The carrots also add the color and richness that cheese typically does. Hot dang! That makes this dish not only good for you, but amazing to eat.
The other wonderful thing is that you can’t even tell that there are carrots in there. The soup just comes out heavenly and full of flavor. Not only that, but it makes a ton and keeps up to a week in the fridge. So whether you’re having company over or you don’t want to think about lunch for the next few days, you’re all set!
The other thing that I love about this soup is that it’s a bit heartier than most cheese soups. Other cheese soups usually only have broccoli as an added ingredients. This adds potatoes and carrots as well, making it a true meal that fills and warms the stomach.
It’s also a really easy way to pack down those veggies that all of us are trying to get more of. Not only that, but when I make this for my family I usually add a side salad to go along with this. Add a few slices of toasted artisan bread and you’ve got a well rounded meal fit for a peasant or a king.
Begin this process by cutting up all the veggies, sausage, onion and garlic. Take your carrots and place them in a saucepan with just enough water to cover them. Turn it to high until it boils. Once boiling, turn them down to a simmer and let them cook for about 10-15 minutes, until they are tender. The smaller you cut them the faster they’ll cook.
Meanwhile, take the onion and garlic and throw them into a large pot.
Add the olive oil. Let the onions and garlic sauté on medium heat for about 5-7 minutes. You’re looking for a bit of browning in the onions.
While your onions and garlic are browning, take out a bowl and add in 1/4 C flour and 1/4 C water. Taking a fork or a whisk, beat the mixture together to form a slurry. Try your best to get out all of the clumps, but don’t worry if it’s not completely smooth, just do your best.
Once your onions and garlic are browned, it is ready for the flour water mixture. BUT, before you do that, get your veggie broth or water at the ready. You’ll need to do this because leaving the flour mixture to get this ingredient could cause it to burn. Ok, add the flour slurry mixture. This helps to thicken the soup so be aware that once you add this slurry, it will instantly begin to thicken and cling to the meat, garlic and onions. Don’t panic, that’s totally normal. Do your best to stir it all together on medium heat for about 30 seconds.
After 30 seconds add in 4 cups of water/broth and whisk or stir together, getting any clumps out and incorporating the water and flour mixture as best as you can. If you’re wondering about what you should use, water or broth, here’s some guidance to help you decide. Broth adds more flavor and will enhance the depth and overall taste of the dish. It is definitely preferred but I don’t always have it on hand. I don’t believe in using MSG filled bouillon cubes or powders, so if I don’t have veggie broth, then I use water. You will still get some amazing flavor coming from this soup regardless of the broth or water.
After adding 4 cups of water check your boiling carrots. At this point they should be soft and ready to blend. If not, give them a few minutes until they are soft enough to poke with a fork. Once they are soft, pour the carrots and boiled water into your blender. Add enough water to cover the carrots. You make need to add a bit more if your carrots don’t freely blend into a smooth soup.
Blend on high for about 3 – 4 minutes. I like to really let my blend for a while to ensure that the texture is completely smooth. There is nothing worse than grainy soup that’s meant to be creamy so let it blend people! Once you’ve reached a smooth texture, pour the carrot mix into the pot.
Add in your potatoes, broccoli and herbs. At this point it’s time to make a judgement call on how much more water or broth you need to add to your soup. When I do this I pay attention to 2 things: the thickness of my soup, and the veggie to soup ratio. I like my spoon to have enough soup to drink up, thinning out the veggies just a tad so for me I usually add the full 8 cups. If you like more veggies than soup then adjust to your taste.
Finally, turn off the heat and add in the parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese and half and half. Stir and stir and stir until the cheese is completely melted and incorporated.
Last, but certainly not least, add the salt. Ever batch is different based on the sharpness of the parmesan cheese that you use, but typically I add about 1 – 2 TBS of salt into my soup. Make sure that you’re adding enough salt to bring out all of the flavors from the various ingredients. You should have an amazing balance of richness, sharp flavors from the cheese, savory depth from the onions, herbs and garlic, and a bit of sweetness from the carrots.
