Creamy Broccoli Soup

All that’s needed for a creamy broccoli soup are sautéed onion in butter, lots of broccoli, not a ton of broth/water, and an immersion blender. When it’s soft enough to blend, do so. Cream and more liquid of any kind optional. Broccoli soup should taste like broccoli

An immersion blender is your friend if you like to make soup. They eliminate the messy chore of moving hot liquid to a blender and back.

Too complicated. I sauté onions and garlic in a little olive oil, add the broccoli, one peeled potato (instead of dairy) and vegetable or chicken broth, salt, pepper and paprika, simmer it for 20-30 minutes and use the immersion blender. The best (and easiest) ever!

So interesting that so many feel the need to share their recipes for more traditional cream of broccoli soups. There are several more on the site. This one is clearly different, with subtle and interesting flavors. Plus, it’s loaded with extra protein from the tofu. It’s lovely!

The comments seem to stem around people NOT making this recipe and immersion blenders - lol! I actually made the recipe and would give it a solid B. I used medium firm tofu because the store was out of silken, this required the use of an actual blender so that the soup wasn't chunky and weird looking. Int needs a splash of brightness. I added a splash of sherry vinegar. Also, for depth of flavor a couple tbs of nutritional yeasts. Served with ricotta and homemade croutons.

I agree that immersion blenders are the best for blending hot liquids. I've never seen one that scratches the bottom of the pan. Mine has a cage around the blades so that the blades don't touch the container.

If you aren't vegan, but simply vegetarian + dairy, you can up the flavor of your vege stock with parmesan rinds, and even rinds of other hard cheeses. Just did it on an impulse and was really impressed by the depth of flavor, but still very vegetable forward.

I love this soup recipe! I'm enjoying my second bowl of it right now. It is full of broccolli flavor, but with a plethora of more subtle vegetables as well. I confess that I used white potato rather than sweet (because that's what I had). I love the coconut water for the broth - again, it's subtle and very good. After blending it with my immersion blender, I tossed some goat cheese on my steaming first bowl (again because that's what I had). Totally delcious!

You can peel off the outer layer of the broccoli stems before cooking to eliminate the roughage instead of taking them out altogether.

I don't see where Eric Kim used the word "healthy" in his essay, nor in the recipe itself. At any rate, we have peanut and tree nut allergies in my household, and I wouldn't say that their inclusion alone in many "healthy" recipes discounts that descriptor (the whole nature of a food allergy = the food is benign and even healthy to most, but life-threatening to a minority). I do think it'd be ideal to have a "possible allergen" tag on the ingredient lists of recipes, as they do on food labels.

I use an immersion blender for many things, but to make soup taste a cream soup, I use my blender, always with a folded dish towel pressed on top to keep splatters under control. Carrot soup with an immersion blender is good, but blended it is great, and no one can believe there isn't cream in it.

I was pretty disappointed with this. It’s bland and a bit cloyingly sweet as scripted. I added a lot more garlic and a generous amount of cayenne pepper along with a teaspoon of sherry vinegar, which helped, but I still wouldn’t make it again.

To DawnN, may I humbly suggest a new immersion blender and/or, if possible, tilting your pot slightly when blending in order to reduce contact with the bottom of your pan. I’ve never had that problem!

just made this tonight! easy and satisfying for weeknight. didn’t have garlic powder so subbed in a few finely grated cloves. i left the broccoli stems in but i think next time i’ll keep them out as my immersion blender didn’t quite chop up the fibrous stems as much as i might have liked, but it wasn’t a huge deal. didn’t have ricotta so sprinkled a little feta and that was quite tasty. this one will definitely make it into the rotation. thanks eric!!!

A different recipe for broccoli soup perhaps (there are hundreds, at least)? I've made the one from America's Test Kitchen with success before. Another I've made repeatedly over the years (to date myself) is called Emerald Soup, and hails from the Dinah Shore Show, sometime in the 1980's I believe (it's the basil and oregano that make that one shine). No tofu in either.