An elegant soup with a mild yet distinctive flavour. Serve with freshly baked Light Brown Health Loaf.
50 g butter or margarine
500 g broccoli, rinsed and broken into florets
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
50 ml cake flour
1 litre home-made or shop-bought chicken stock or
1 litre water combined with 10 ml chicken stock powder
good pinch ground nutmeg
250 ml milk
250 ml cream
30 ml dry sherry or white wine
200 g Feta cheese, diced
salt and freshly ground black pepper
chopped spring onion or parsley
- Place the butter or margarine, broccoli, onion and garlic into a saucepan and cook very gently over moderate heat for 10 minutes, stirring from time to time until the vegetables are soft but not at all browned.
- Stir in the flour, then the stock or water and stock powder and bring to boil.
- Simmer gently and partly covered for 20 minutes or until the broccoli is quite tender. Cool a few minutes.
- Pour the mixture into the bowl of a food processor and blend until completely smooth.
- Return to the saucepan and add the milk and nutmeg. Bring to boil and simmer 3 minutes more.
- Stir in the cream and sherry or wine and season lightly with salt, bearing in mind that the Feta cheese is salty.
- Add black pepper to taste and bring to boiling point just before serving. Dice the Feta cheese finely and add to the soup shortly before ladling it into soup bowls.
- Sprinkle with spring onion or parsley and serve with wholewheat or crusty bread and butter.
Variations
- For a less rich soup, replace the cream with 250 ml milk mixed with 30 ml cornflour.
- Omit the Feta cheese and serve the soup with finely grated cheese , e.g. Parmesan or Cheddar.
- For a cold soup, cool and refrigerate the soup after step 4. Use only 100 g Feta cheese and dice it quite finely. Spoon the cold soup into small ramekin dishes and sprinkle with the Feta cheese, spring onion and parsley.
6 to 8 servings.
Recipe by Carolié de Koster from Art Of Cooking page 107.