I was inspired by this entry at bread-and-honey, and I had a surplus of broccoli to use, which I though would go great in it.  But of course, I can’t really follow directions, so if you go read that post and then compare my recipe, you’ll find that they don’t match up very well.

But I made a good effort!  In fact, I acquired tarragon and fennel explicitly for this soup.

The fennel came out so strong that it quickly became fennel soup.  However, it was not overpowering, and in fact was very tasty.

Anyway, the ingredient list looks something like this:

  • Half a yellow onion
  • One large leek
  • Half a bulb of garlic
  • About six small zucchinis
  • Two broccoli crowns (they were cheaper than the rest of the broccoli)
  • A box of Trader Joe’s “Creamy Corn and Roasted Pepper Soup”.  It has been sitting in my closet for about half a month, and I was looking to add creaminess, and maybe that would do it.
  • Dried fennel, tarragon, arbol peppers, salt, and black pepper, all ground together
  • Olive oil and butter
  • A small amount of corn starch

I carefully followed the directions of sauteing the onion, leek, and garlic in the pot before making the soup.  Of course, I use so many ingredients, that this filled the pot up about two inches!  Giving them a little time to cook (almost ten minutes, which Alicia thought would be too long), I added the zucchini, which filled the pot to about half!  Well, those zuchinni are never going to saute like that, but I like my veggies crunchy, so that’s fine by me.  I added some water and took some of the zucchinis (and some of the broccoli stems too) to the blender, and pureed enough to make the broth green.

At this point I realized I forgot to acquire cream.  I debated using milk, when I found the box of soup in the closet.  I know it is the highest form of cheating, but I really don’t care, and dumped the entire contents of the box in the pot.  I’m not sure if the box of soup has cream in it, but it is a perfect smooth creamy consistency which went far in the soup.

I also found I had no flour, according to the recipe.  I put a little corn starch in it–I wanted the thickening effect, but I really don’t like corn starch, it has a flavor that makes me think of hot and sour soups.  I basically put in so little it did nothing, and gave up looking for thickeners.

I realized at this point there isn’t much in there that really needs to cook, so I waited for it to warm and put all the spices in a grinder and hit the grindy button.  Here the fennel really came out–the tarragon I could have left out, but the fennel gave it a really nice smell.

This was a really tasty soup.  However, there was an interesting effect between when it was hot, and how it was the next day–fresh from the pot, it was almost too spicy, and seemed to need salt, which I alleviated by putting lots of saltine crackers in it.  The next day, the salt ratio seemed perfect, but I added tabasco to get the heat back.  I’m not sure what caused this effect.