When I set out to think about this week’s recipe, my initial idea was a broccoli cheddar soup. I mean, what could be a more cozy and warming dinner than soup this time of year? As I started to think about building flavor (my favorite soup-making tactic), one thing led to another, and before I knew it, I had to abandon the idea that this was the classic broccoli-and-cheddar combination. This roasted vegetable, green chile and cheddar soup is loaded with flavor and deeply hearty for this time of year.
To start with, soup is especially friendly to the odds and ends of vegetables. Because of this, I used the tender parts of the stems of both broccoli and cauliflower. When cutting both vegetables, you’ll know if the stem is tender if your knife can easily slice through it. As it gets closer to the root, the stems will get more fibrous and better suited for the compost bin, but most of the stems are perfectly edible and when used in a soup like this, act as a thickener when blended.
Knowing full well how roasting transforms a New Mexico chile, I couldn’t get out of my head that this is true for all sorts of vegetables. So the first thing I did was put broccoli, cauliflower and carrots in a very hot oven for an hour to fully cook and get a bit of char on them before adding them to the soup. And while it might seem like this is an extra hour of prep, this is happening while you are taking your time caramelizing both the onions and mushrooms, so it’s not really adding additional time. The result is a complex layering of flavor in the soup pot — first caramelized onions and mushrooms, roasted broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, then herbs and green chile, finishing it all with sharp cheddar cheese. Because we want the cheese to melt into the soup, and because pre-shredded cheese is usually coated with some kind of starch or cellulose to prevent it from sticking together, in this instance I would highly recommend using a piece of sharp cheddar and grating it yourself with a box grater.
There are many variations you could utilize to make this soup work for you. You could leave out or swap olive oil for the butter, coconut milk for the cream or a couple tablespoons of nutritional yeast for the cheese to make it dairy free. You could add potato, celery root or butternut squash if you wanted. To make this soup vegetarian, just use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. And while blending half of the soup gives it a luscious, creamy texture, this is optional.
Caramelizing the onions and mushrooms, foreground, and roasting the vegetables, background, maximize flavor in this soup.
Marianne Sundquist/For The New Mexican
Roasted vegetable, green chile and cheddar soup
Makes: 3 quarts; total time: 2 hours
1 pound broccoli, florets and tender stems
1 small head cauliflower, florets and tender stems cut into bite-sized pieces
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced, cut into bite-sized pieces
Drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper
4 tablespoons butter, divided
1 large onion, sliced
8 ounces mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
2-4 cloves garlic, depending on size and preference, minced
2 teaspoons High Desert Herbs (or herbes de Provence)
2 cups (1 tub) green chile, defrosted
6 cups chicken broth
1 cup half-and-half or heavy cream
½ pound sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and line a large sheet tray with parchment paper. Place the broccoli, cauliflower and carrots on the sheet tray and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 1 hour, giving it a stir halfway through.
While the vegetables are roasting, place a large soup pot over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons of the butter and the onions. Slowly let the onions caramelize. Once the onions begin caramelizing, reduce the heat to low. Don’t rush it. This could easily take 40 minutes. When the onions are done, transfer them to a bowl.
Turn the heat up to medium-high and add the other 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms have caramelized. Add the garlic and cook for another few minutes. Add the caramelized onions and green chile and let this mixture simmer until most of the water from the green chiles has evaporated.
Add the roasted vegetables, broth and cream. Bring this mixture to a simmer. Carefully blend around half of the soup and stir it back into the pot. Turn off the heat and in two batches, stir in the shredded cheese. Add salt and pepper as needed.
Marianne Sundquist is a chef, writer and co-founder of Stokli, celebrating nourishing goods from the high desert (stokli.com). Find her on Instagram @marianne__sundquist and email her at marianne@stokli.com.
The Santa Fe New Mexican observes its 175th anniversary with a series highlighting some of the major stories and figures that have appeared in the paper's pages through its history. The collection also includes archival photo galleries.
