Broccoli Soup with Parmesan toasts

A book all on soups, and they are the considered quite easy to make, and could be taken as any normal meal. Yup, 500 soups are a damn freaking lot, and I'm one lazy bum. So, if you see me posting about 50 soups recipes from the book, it's already a super-duper gigantic feat to me, which I don't think will ever happen. Maybe I should set the "target" to just 20 soups. Haha.

So, the first "chosen one" from the book is broccoli soup. Healthy, and with easy-to-find ingredients, and of course, simple instructions to follow. There is also the part about the bread that you can make to go with the soup.

Well, pardon the newspapers at the bottom of the dishes. My kitchen doesn't have any proper and nice area for a more professional-looking photo. But generally, that was how everything turned out to look like in the end. However, the soup turned out a little too watery, which I think may be due to too much chicken stock coz I kind of got "lost" when adding the stock. Heh. But it was still drinkable, and looks quite professional eh?

Oh, and credit goes to the husband for helping me to do the blending, and toasting of the breads. And, be careful when blending as the dish is very hot and take care to put your hand over the cover of the blender, or else all the hot soup will be spilling over the place.

Broccoli soup with Parmesan toasts

For the soup

Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons plain flour
- 750 ml vegetable or chicken stock
- 450 g broccoli, cut into small florets
- 350 ml milk
- salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions :

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and cook gently for about 4 minutes.

2. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute, then gradually stir in the stock. Add the broccoli, bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 7 minutes, until broccoli is tender.

3. Process the soup in a blender or food processor until smooth, then return to the saucepan.

4. Stir in the milk, and salt and pepper to taste, and heat through.

For the toasts

Ingredients:
- 25 g butter, at room temperature
- 50 g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 8 slices baguette
- 25 g Parmesan, cut into shavings

Directions:

1. Beat the butter with the Parmesan.

2. Grill the baguette on one side, then turn and spread the butter.

3. Top with Parmesan shavings, grill until golden and bubbling, and serve with the soup.