Chicago’s mood swings have been really hard on me. One day it’s in the 50s and the next it’s freezing! Chicago why you gotta play me like that?! I needed comfort food in order to deal with our city’s bipolarness. So I decided to make panera inspired broccoli cheddar soup!

As always I never share the exact amount. Ya’ll need to taste and tweak!

Ingredients:

• Broccoli
• Carrots- julienne
• Onion- diced
• half n half
• Chicken broth or Vegetable broth (I used chicken)
• All Purpose Flour
• Unsalted Butter
• Spices (I used salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cajun spice, hot sauce, a pinch of cumin, a pinch of nutmeg. Be very careful when adding spices.. taste and tweak)

Directions:

In a soup pot, or a sauce pan (don’t needa get fancy; make do of what you have) add in the unsalted butter. Once it’s melted, add the diced onions and saute them until translucent. Next, add a little bit of all purpose flour and whisk. Whisk fast. Don’t add too much flour. You can always add but not subtract. After a good whisk, add the broccoli and mix. mix. mixy mix. Add in your spices and mix. Add carrots and mix again.

After a good 3-5 minutes, when the broccoli and carrots are coated with the spices add the half n half. More whisky whisk. Whisk. Wait. Whisk. Wait. Add the chicken broth (I used salted chicken broth so I didn’t need to add too much salt). You’ll need to do a tasty taste and add more spices to your liking. Cover the pan with a lid and let the soup simmer while constantly stirring. After 10-15 minutes, use a hand blender to further chop the broccoli and carrots (If you like big chunks or don’t own a hand blender, you can skip this step tbh). Let the soup cook for a few more minutes, approx 5 more minutes, or until when you think it is time to add the cheddar cheese. Add the cheese, mix, mix, and mix!

This is an important step.. Pour it in a bowl or cup, garnish it with broccoli/carrots, take a snap and send it to me on funsizedsuburbanfoodie on instagram! I will give you a shout out 🙂  Then you can serve it with some french bread or whatever you like. Enjoy!