Creamy soup with potato chunks - a compromise

Since Christmas, when we got a food processor, I have prepared many different creamy soups. I very much like their rich and creamy flavour and it is so easy to make them - just cook the vegetables until tender in broth, purée and serve. You can finish the soup by adding cream, milk or cream cheese, to make it even more rich and moist. But you can actually prepare a silky smooth soup using only water, especially if you have a blender (not a food processor) at your disposal.

So, anyhow, I am a fan of creamy soups, and J is not that much. He prefers a soup with chunks. So I tried to prepare a compromise solution, something like this creamy broccoli soup was. I bet there is an easier way of doing this kind of soup cause I felt like it was weird to cook vegetables differently in two saucepans…but I did not know what else to do…so in case you have any ideas how to prepare a chunky-creamy soup in a more simple manner, let me know. In the meantime, I will tell you how it is possible to prepare two bowls of soup from the following ingredients:

300 g broccoli stalks (you might want to use the broccoli florets to prepare this salad)

2 potatoes

1-2 garlic gloves

chicken broth

4 slices of bacon

white pepper, salt, chili powder

50-100 ml milk

some butter

 

# First of all, wash and peel the potatoes, also wash broccoli stalks and chop everything.

# In a saucepan, melt butter and sauté crushed garlic for a few minutes. Butter adds richness which I like more than the fruity note olive oil provides (but you are welcome to sauté garlic in oil as well).

# After a few minutes of sautéing, place chopped broccoli stalks over the garlic and cover barely with chicken broth.

# At the same time place potato chunks into another saucepan, also cover barely with chicken broth. Boil both vegetables for about 15 minutes and remove from heat.

# Drain potatoes - don’t through away the broth, just pour it in the same saucepan with broccoli. Set potatoes aside until you purée broccoli stalks (together with all the broth).

# When nice and smooth, place potatoes into the soup, add milk and season with white pepper, salt and some chili powder, if you like spicy soups. Stir.

Keep in mind that most cream soups are best when the flavour of the vegetable isn’t blurred by too many ingredients, but at the same time you should still add just enough salt and pepper as it is said that they bring out the somewhat muted vegetable flavors.

So, back to the soup - once you have joined potatoes with the puree, seasoned and stirred everything, then the soup is almost ready. It can wait, covered, until you chop, fry and drain the bacon slices. When serving, top the soup with bacon and grated cheese. Very tasty, J was impressed