Cream of Broccoli Soup

aka: a new purpose for broccoli stems

Our food scraps do not go to waste.
A few are given to the dogs, some to the worms and the remainder to the chickens.
In spite have having well deserving recipients of our food scraps, I do make an effort to utilize "the entire plant" in my kitchen.

I recently prepared a few dishes that required the dark green crowns of broccoli, but not the stems.  I felt a little silly when I put the broccoli stems back into the crisper drawer of my fridge, but I had a plan for them. Broccoli stems are a part of the plant that even my husband will push aside and the kids, well, they usually just chomp the greenest of the green parts and leave the rest behind. So,  I felt even sillier as I rummaged through the freezer to retrieve a container filled with chopped up broccoli stems and I set it and the bag of broccoli stems on the counter.  I was going to turn all of these stems into cream of broccoli soup.

I almost apologetically set the bowls of steaming soup on the table, and waited breathlessly for my husband to take the first bite....  he liked it.  The critic of all things broccoli liked it!  The kids liked it.
I liked it...  but then I knew I would.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

2 cups of water
1 onion
3 ribs of celery
4 broccoli stems
1 large carrot

• chop all of the vegetables and place into a saucepan with water, bring to a boil and simmer until soft (about 15 min)

add:

2 chicken bullion cubes

a dash of nutmeg

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup of water

2 table spoons flour

• add the bullion cubes and butter to the saucepan
• stir the flour into the cup of water and then pour into the sauce pan, stir well
• simmer for an additional 5 minutes
• pour the soup into a mixer and blend or use an immersion blender (this is what I do)

add:

1 cup of half and half 

salt and pepper to taste

• serve with warm fresh whole wheat bread 

"Why no pictures?"you ask.
"Because, I am at this very moment curled up in my bed with a stubbornly awake two year old...  and pictures are an attention grabber, but I can get away with quietly typing away on the key board."