Cream of Broccoli and Potato Soup

Adapted from: $5 Dinners
Made by: Cathy

I bought a huge bag of broccoli from BJ's that I needed to use up. We didn't have much leftovers from Thanksgiving, but there were loads of leftover recipes floating around. I took $5 Dinners' basic recipe for cream of broccoli soup and came up with this. I used leftover ingredients I had on hand.


Ingredients:
1-2 cups broccoli heads
2 medium potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed (or leftover mashed potatoes)
2 1/4 cups of chicken broth
1 1/2 cups low fat half and half
1/2 cup light cream
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
salt and pepper
1/4 cup cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon garlic powder
a little extra virgin olive oil

Directions:
1. Peel and cut up the potatoes. In a pot of water, add the potatoes and a teaspoon of salt and boil until tender. Drain and mash up. Add to stockpot.
2. Meanwhile, cut the broccoli heads, finely chop the onions and celery. Toss into stockpot.
3. Add the liquids, stir well, bring to boil.
4. Add cheese, garlic powder, s&p to taste, drizzle with oil, then reduce heat and simmer. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.
4. If necessary, blend with immersion hand blender.
5. Garnish with sour cream.

I don't have an immersion blender so ended up pouring it into a blender and blending on low. Transfer to a large bowl, then blend the rest. Combine it all again and mix well. I ended up making a mess because of the steam pressure in the blender caused the soup to spill out, even though I was holding on to the top.

Other than that mess, It was very tasty.