By Karen England, for Let’s Talk Plants! January 2025.
Broccoli Cheese Soup in a Bread Bowl for One
“. . . Of one thing I feel sure, a working knowledge of both gardening and cooking would tend to give a young person in the inevitably difficult world of tomorrow an added confidence about living, a talisman in times of stress, and a reassuring sense of independence and power." - Constance Spry, Come into the Garden, Cook, 1942.
I like to write this column as a supplement to Sommer Cartier’s Grow in Abundance columns. Every other month Sommer writes all about growing vegetables (and more) successfully in our area and in turn I use this article to add recipes for using the garden abundance that surely follows from taking Sommer’s advice. This month Sommer instructs us about Mastering the Harvest of Cole Crops and upon reading it I immediately craved Broccoli Cheese Soup in a bread bowl.
These days I am cooking for one, me. I have a senior citizen’s smaller appetite and am living alone, which means I am cutting most of the recipes that I make in half or more so that I am not swimming in leftovers and filling my freezer from stem to stern with premade foods, because I have found that there are still leftovers even when making smaller amounts. Don’t get me wrong, I love leftovers. But I also love the act of cooking my meals fresh and it has become a dance trying to balance these two loves.
I do own an extra freezer, so freezer space is not an issue for me, but its purpose is mostly for storing ingredients that I will cook with, like buttermilk for scones, cream for biscuits, butter for everything, sliced bread for toast and sandwiches, homemade stocks for soups, bags of baby sweet peas, chopped spinach, green beans, blueberries, and … lots of persimmons, etc., but of course it also stores leftovers.
I love the act of cooking from the garden, I find it makes me very happy, while having a freezer full of premade foods, no matter how yummy, does not fill me with joy. Rather, it makes me feel bad (which is ridiculous!) about cooking for myself fresh when there is so much frozen food stored that I haven’t eaten.
Maybe many of you are in the same camp as me regarding this, so that is why I am giving you this recipe for Broccoli Cheese Soup In a Bread Bowl for ONE!
I got a new cookbook for Christmas that I am enjoying called Half Baked Harvest Quick & Cozy by Tieghan Gerard, Clarkson Potter, ©2024, that was the inspiration for my version of her Baked Broccoli Cheddar- Gruyère Soup in Bread Bowls that serves 4-6. Also in this book are two other enticing cole crops recipes that I will be trying soon (but in reduced amounts); Roasted Pepperoni Brussels Sprouts and Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Garlic Tahini and Dates.
Broccoli Cheese Soup in a Bread Bowl for One
Ingredients
1 tablespoon unsalted butter (I prefer butter unsalted butter but the original recipe called for salted...)
1 fat garlic clove, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon honey
1 large shallot, chopped
1 medium carrot, diced
1 large celery stalk, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves plus more for the top
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon flour
Pinch of cayenne pepper or more to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste
1 cup stock, chicken or vegetable
½ cup whole milk
Florets from 1 small head broccoli (~ 1 cup or ~1/4 pound)
2 bay leaves
1 cup medium/sharp aged cheddar cheese, grated
Optional, small baked or cooked potato, diced (~ 1 cup)
1 *small sourdough bread bowl, hollowed
½ cup Gruyère cheese, grated
Directions
In a small Dutch oven over low heat melt the butter and cook the shallot, carrot, celery until soft. Add the garlic and cook until garlic is fragrant. Add the honey and season with salt and pepper.
Add the flour, cayenne and nutmeg to the vegetables and stir until thickened. Gradually whisk in the broth, then the milk. Add the broccoli and bay leaves and cook until the broccoli is tender (~ 10 minutes.)
Remove from the heat and add the cheddar, stirring until melted.
Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 400˚F.
Put the hollowed-out bread bowl on a baking sheet and (optional: bake 10 minutes until lightly toasted. I skip this step.) ladle the hot soup (most likely only some soup will fit, not all – refrigerate the rest for later) into the bread bowl and top with Gruyère and more thyme leaves.
Bake until the cheese is melted and bubbling, about 10 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil until cheese is golden brown, about 1 minute more.
Serve immediately.
*Note: have you seen the size of the breads sold for bowls? FYI - They are not to my mind single serving sizes (some of them are too big for baking in a toaster oven!), even the sourdough baby boules I use that Sprouts markets sell are more bread than one serving, even with the guts taken out. I am not fond of the modern saying “it is what it is” but in this case, it is.
SD Hort President Karen England loves to cook with garden bounty for one or for 100 and happily shares her favorite recipes with everyone.
She even teaches a series of stand-alone Cooking with Herbs classes at the location where we regularly hold our general meetings in Rancho Bernardo at San Diego Oasis
17170 Bernardo Center Dr
San Diego, CA 92128
Oasis Tel: (858) 240-2880
Her next Oasis cooking class is in February 2025 Cooking with Herbs: Everyone has a Meatball – San Diego Oasis Store
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