Just made this soup and it is fabulous! Wondering if it freezes well? If so, what is the process? I'm guessing I would make it up to the point just before adding the cream, then freeze. Any thoughts?

You could freeze this soup but we do not necessarily recommend it due to the milk in the recipe. Soups containing dairy can split after being frozen. Also, green soups will generally not look as nice once they have been frozen, thawed and reheated again. Hope this helps. Cheers!

I made the Cream of Broccoli soup today, and the result was awesome. I chose to puree it all, and present it in low wide bowls, with a few deep fried onions sprinkled on top for garnish. which made a beautiful presentation. It was spectacular.

Realize, that I am a guy who has prided himself on how broccoli free my body is! Broccoli is not my favorite vegetable, but these cream soups are wonderful ways of getting all the nutrition of these otherwise bland vegetables in a very pleasant way!

I was going to try to make broccoli & cheese soup, but at the last minute decided that the addition of the cheese would alter the flavour, colour and texture too much. Can you give some recommendations for what cheeses would go well with this recipe, and when the cheese should be added in order to make broccoli & cheese!

Great that you are practicing!

Consider cheese to be an ingredient that will enrich the soup; therefore, it should be slowly added at the end. If you refer back to the pre-requisite lesson on Bechamel, you'll understand that when cheese is added to this particular sauce, you create a variation called "Mornay". It all ties together. Use a good melting cheese (not low fat). Cheddar or Swiss or a combination of the two would go well. Cheers!

I made a double batch of this soup using part homemade light chicken stock and 1/2 milk. I really liked the body of this soup. It is a bit thicker in consistency than the cream of broccoli recipe that I routinely use.

I did have a problem with a slight grainy texture. Otherwise, the soup was wonderful. I was wondering if I might have undercooked the roux mixture before incorporating it into the soup?

Please do check out the lesson on "How to Make Roux-Based Soups", as this is covered in detail in that lesson. Cheers!

I made this soup with milk and with chicken stock. I like onions, but forgot to buy them so I replaced carrots. They both turned out great. One thing I learned is it saves a lot of time when I blanched the broccoli stems. Thanks Rouxbe, because of your classes I have learned to use what I have in my kitchen, between stir frying and soup making nothing gets wasted.

Way to improvise Marilyn—that's the sign of a good cook! Keep up the good work. Cheers!

I accidentally added twice as much butter as needed. When the soup was done, it was not the taste and consistency I wanted. How can I make this soup unique? It tastes bland to me. I added salt and pepper but I think it needs more. Also, my soup ended up a bit too heavy. I like it lighter without that pronounced cream flavor. Can I thin it out with water, substitute maybe with cornstarch for less of something else? Thanks for any input.

Is there any way to make it smoother? I blended the soup using the blend function on a blender. Is there a way to make it really smooth. I can still taste some texture.

Darrell, this soup recipe is all about learning the technique behind it. Now that you know how to make it, by all means start to work with other flavours — salt and pepper will only take you so far.

For example, try adding some caraway seeds when you sweat your ingredients or add tarragon leaves towards the end of it. You can also stir in a spoon of your favourite curry paste when you sweat the veg to give it a totally different profile. Or how about stirring in some blue cheese at the end?

If the soup is too thick, adding a stock would be my first choice, then milk and water really if you have nothing else — adding cream will likely make it too rich.

If your soup is not smooth, either the broccoli was not soft enough (most likely mistake I encounter with the students) it could also be that you didn't leave it in the blender long enough, hope it helps.

Yes, it really helped. Thanks.