Cheddar, Potatoes, Broccoli

The second Saturday in October saw the preparation of a soup that for me is as much a part of Autumn as picking chestnuts from the local wood, scraping the first frost off my car window and wearing a woolly trench coat to work.   The soup in question was a heavy mixture of Cheddar Cheese, Potatoes, Brocolli and Onions.

On the CD player was Dire Straits' quasi Pink Floyd fourth album Love Over Gold a record that was a nod back to my fifteen year old self who used to listen to the Straits almost obsessively until he discovered more genuine and exciting music.

I took two red onions and three medium-sized white potatoes and then diced them into small pieces. I poured some olive oil into the bottom of my Le Cresceut Dish and turned on the heat. After the oil had warmed for about a minute I added a hint of white pepper and then threw in the potatoes and onions.

While the potatoes and onions were lightly frying I trimmed a large bunch of broccoli and proceeded the cut the stems into two inch slices. I collated the stems together and dropped them into the Le Cresceut dish. I fried the stems for about five minutes while stirring the contents of the dish constantly to avoid them sticking to the bottom of the dish.

As I had removed all the stems from the Broccoli I was left with the florets and I now added these to the dish together with a pint and a half of chicken stock. It was now time to let the mixture simmer gently on the hob for about forty minutes so that the various flavours could fuse into each other.

When I returned to the food after forty minutes was up I turned off the heat and poured the contents of the dish into the blender. Once I had blended it on the lowest setting on my blender I returned it to the soup bowl and grated a very generous amount of cheddar cheese into it which I then allowed to melt into the soup to give it even more richness. After warming it through it was ready to serve.

The three potatoes gave the soup a real thickness that made it substantial while the taste of the chicken stock and the rather coarse taste of the broccoli florets made the soup feel like a substantial meal. It certainly fortified me enough for an evening trip to Sheffield for a memorable night exploring a Turkish Restaurant and sampling some first rate real bitter.

Just after blending- the grated cheddar on the surface soon melted  into the soup to give it a pleasant richness.

In the bowl- a soup substantial enough to help keep the Autumn cold away.