|boundless love for soup|

There are many things I love about soup. Many, many things. One of the things I love the most is how you don't really need a recipe to make it. Once you have the method down, you're good to go. In the past few weeks I've created three soups with no real recipes...a vegetarian tortilla soup, a white bean soup, and a creamy broccoli soup. So good.

Here are some tips for getting you started:

• Begin by sauteing some aromatics and herbs in some olive oil. Stuff like onions, garlic, leeks, celery, carrots are all good at this point.
• After they start to get softened, add in your broth. I just use veggie stock in a can. Find one you like. Beer/wine are good, too.
  
• Then if you want to add other veggies, beans, potatoes, pasta, you can. If you're using something like potatoes, you're going to want to parboil them somewhere else. This is also a good time to add other flavors to the stock, like some tomato paste, if you're into that.
• To finish, you'll want to check the salt/pepper. And if you want a creamy soup, add some evaporated milk. Cheese would go in here, too.
• And you're done!

CREAM OF BROCCOLI w/ a TOUCH of CHEESE

• Saute onions,garlic, celery, carrots in a bit of olive oil until softened. While sauteing, add in some curry, pepper, red pepper flakes, and freshly ground nutmeg.
• Add a couple cups of veggie broth. Bring to a boil and add freshly cut broccoli. You can use the stems, too. Let it boil just a couple minutes until the broccoli is bright green, but don't let it go too long!
• Remove from heat and let it cook down a bit. Take some of the broccoli out and put it aside. Puree the rest in a blender (or with a stick thing). Be careful - if it's too hot or if you get your blender too full you'll have a mess.
• Put it back in the soup pot and add in the reserved broccoli. Add in about a cup of evaporated milk (make sure you're not boiling at this point or ever again or you'll curdle).
• Bring it back up to heat. Add salt/pepper. And if you want, add a few slices of American cheese. Enjoy!