Broccoli Potato Soup

So it is raining here in Northern Virginia, and to me rainy weather means soup. Last night's dinner featured a new soup for me - broccoli potato. What makes this soup nice is the freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Once again I got this from cooking.com who in turn got it from Food and Wine magazine.

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 3/4 pounds broccoli, thick stems peeled and diced (about 2 cups), tops cut into small florets (about 1 quart)
1 1/2 pounds boiling potatoes (about 5), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth or homemade stock
3 cups water
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS
In a large pot, melt the butter over moderately low heat. Add the onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic, broccoli stems, potatoes, broth, water, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the vegetables are almost tender, about 10 minutes.

In a food processor or blender, pulse the soup to a coarse puree. Return the soup to the pot and bring to a simmer. Add the broccoli florets and simmer until they are tender, about 5 minutes. Stir 1/4 cup of the grated Parmesan into the soup, and serve the soup topped with the remaining cheese.

VARIATION
If you'd prefer a completely smooth soup, add the broccoli florets to the pot after the potatoes have cooked for five minutes, and continue simmering until all of the vegetables are tender, about five minutes more. Puree the soup until smooth. This would also make a great first course for six people.


RESULTS
Ok, so my only mistake this time was the potatoes I used. I chose this soup because all the ingredients are almost always in the house. Except the potatoes I had were a bag of leftover baby potatoes. Don't get me wrong, they tasted fine, but it took forever to peel those tiny things. Note to self: use large potatoes when the recipes calls for peeled potatoes. If my wife hadn't jumped in and helped me peel and dice, we would have been eating at midnight.

I only deviated from the printed recipe above in the amount of garlic - I doubled it as is my wont. We're talking 6 cups of liquid and 3 pounds of pureed vegetables. Two measly cloves isn't going to make a dent in that, so load up! In the future I also might add another savory flavor, maybe roasted chilies or something.

Another reason I chose this recipe is that it gave me an excuse to use my new toy, an immersion blender - or Magic Stick by Cuisinart (who thinks up these names?). This is an insanely cool device, modeled here by guest chef Christopher. If you do use an immersion blender make sure your dice is small enough, no larger than about 1/2 inch cubes. And make sure they are tender, don't want to burn out your motor.

I chose to use the variation as I wanted a completely smooth and creamy soup, but I imagine that it would make a fine soup leaving the florets whole.

Once again, the recommended number of servings is ridiculously small. The recipe as printed says 4 servings, which again is a huge amount of soup. This easily made 8 servings, and the nutritional information below assumes 8 servings.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
8 servings
Calories: 163
Fat. Total: 5g
Carbohydrates, Total: 21g
Cholesterol: 12mg
Sodium: 720mg
Protein: 9g
Fiber: 5g
% Cal. from Fat: 28%
Fat, Saturated: 0g

Weight Watcher Points: 3