The Trick For Extra Rich And Creamy Broccoli Soup

When the days get shorter and the sweaters come out, it's soup season. With so many soups to choose from, you could fill your lunch bowl with a different recipe every day throughout the cold seasons. There are some flavors that might be worth repeating, however, such as creamy broccoli soup. Panera arguably built its bread bowl empire one ladleful of broccoli soup at a time, and whether you add cheese or not, it's a soup that's satisfying. 

Classic broccoli soup recipes typically call for a lot of cream, which loads the soup with fat, cholesterol, and calories. There's another way to achieve creaminess, however. Instead of leaning on dairy to make a creamy broccoli soup, thicken the soup with an easy base of a little bit of fat mixed with flour. When you add the broth and heat everything up, the mixture makes a thick, silky texture.

If you're trying to keep your soups vegan, or you just want to make a rich-tasting soup that's on the lighter side, take a page from French cooking and thicken your broccoli soup with roux.

You might not know that it has a name, but more than likely you've eaten something made with a roux before. It's a very common method for thickening sauces, gravies, stews, and soups, and is the traditional base for Creole Gumbo. A roux is a 1-to-1 ratio of flour and fat. The mixture is cooked for a short time until it makes a paste, and then the cooking liquid is whisked in. When the liquid reaches 124–140 degrees Fahrenheit, the starch molecules in the flour expand and explode, which is called gelatinization. This is what thickens the soup.

A general rule of thumb is that each tablespoon of roux can thicken about a cup of liquid. When making a roux, it's important to cook it for at least a few minutes, typically until the mixture starts bubbling, to cook off the raw flour flavor. For some soups, including gumbo, the roux is cooked for several minutes until it turns brown to add caramelized flavor. But for creamy broccoli soup, you want the flavor of the vegetable to shine through so only cook the roux just until it bubbles and starts to smell nutty.

When the roux is ready, don't just dump it into the soup pot. The next step is to add some of the soup's liquid to the roux. This is called "tempering," and it's done to make sure the roux is evenly mixed into the liquid without clumping. Slowly pour in a small amount of the stock, broth, milk, or water and whisk the roux and the liquid until the mixture is smooth, and then whisk in more liquid, little by little, until the roux is thoroughly mixed with the liquid and there's no chance of clumping.  Once the mixture is tempered, you can add the mixture to the soup. Tempering is an especially important step if the cooking liquid is hot because the flour mixture is temperature-sensitive, and will start to gelatinize when it comes in contact with hot liquid.

Once the tempered roux is added to the pot, all you need to do is let the soup come up to a slow boil for a few minutes and it will thicken into creamy, dreamy broccoli soup. Roux works great in creamy soups, and you can also try it in a brothy soup that you'd like to make thick and creamy, like perennial favorites chicken noodle and vegetable soup.