Saturday, March 9, 2013

low fat Cream of Broccoli Soup

So I made an attempt to make low fat broccoli soup.  I love cream of broccoli soup and a friend pointed out how cream of soups are so high in calories.  I have no idea the calorie count of this soup but it makes about 6 cups.  This soup has not been perfected by making often. I just made it this afternoon and it turned out so I am sharing what I did.

2 medium onion
1 large clove of garlic
1 cup of chopped celery
Saute in 1/4 cup of water if you have a good Teflon frying pan.  Use oil if you need to in order for your veggies not to stick. I did not use oil, once my veggies were frying good I added a few tbsp of the chicken stock to keep things from sticking.
900 ml box of low sodium, low fat chicken stock.
2 broccoli heads
Chop up broccoli florets, peel broccoli stems and chop up. Add the chopped broccoli to the fry pan and let fry up a bit.
Once the onions are just starting to brown, put your veggies in to a food processor in batches. Add 2 cups of water with the veggies. As the vegetables purees, add 1/4 cup f flour a little at a time into the food processor. This is the secret to good 'cream of' soups. The flour will cook and thicken the soup with out clumps or needing fat to blend with the flour.
All the pureed vegetables, flour, water go into a  big pot with the rest of chicken stock.
De-glaze your frying pan with some of the chicken stock and add to pot as well.
Cook this on low for 1 hour.  Stir every 10 mins because the flour will settle and stick to the bottom of the pan.
Your soup should thicken, it will take a while. 
add 1 1/2 cups of fat free sour cream. cook for another 20 mins. Whisk well. Add pepper to taste.
I added 1 to 2 tbsp of low fat cream cheese.
tastes good and will improve the longer it sits. If it is not creamy enough you can add grated cheese to each bowl as it is served.
Next time I make it I think I will put in the crock pot to cook,  I wonder if that will work. Then add the sour cream at the end.
YUM