Broccoli Cheese Mushroom Soup

I love soup when it is cold outside. I love to make soup from the vegetables I grow in my little garden. Fall vegetables grow particularly well for me because we rarely have a hard freeze. This blog has become a little recipe heavy. The broccoli in this soup did come from my own garden. The milk should have come from my CSA farm. Unfortunately, I had to buy my milk this week at the grocery store. It is whole and organic, thankfully.


1/2 large onion
2 cups chopped broccoli
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 cup creamy type cheese (I used Velveeta because I didn't have the melty kind of queso blanco)
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese shredded.
2 cups or more whole milk (if you want a thick soup use less. For a thin soup use more)
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock (I used Better Than Bouillon chicken stock)
A pinch of curry powder


Saute the onion in a tablespoon of butter. Add the stock and broccoli to the onion. Continue to cook on medium heat until the broccoli is completely cooked - about 10 minutes. In the meantime, saute the mushrooms in a little butter and set aside.


Adjust the heat to low and add the milk. Be careful, it is easy to scald milk and that would taste horrible. Use a wand blender to smooth out the onions and broccoli. Add the cheeses to the broccoli, onion and milk and stir continuously as the cheeses melt. Add the chopped mushrooms and just a pinch of curry powder, stir and eat it up.


I didn't feel like this soup needed any extra salt or pepper.

My friend Tony Tolentino suggested I serve my soup with crostinis. Here is his yummy recipe

12-18 sun dried tomato slices
1/2 cup Italian salad dressing, olive oil or your own vinaigrette
1/3 to 1/2 loaf of French bread
Basil leafs
Preheat oven to 350
Marinate tomatoes in the dressing for 30 minutes
Cut bread in 1/2 to 3/4 inch slices and brush both sides of each slice of bread with dressing
Roll up basil leaves and slice
Bake bread until golden about 3 minutes per side
Top each slice of bread with a tomato slice and continue to cook until the tomatoes are heated about 4 minutes
Top with basil slices.

What is your favorite kind of soup?

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Borrowed from Mr. Charles Harvey off of Facebook.

Happy New Year Best Hoppin John Ever

I accidentally made the best black eyed peas of my cooking lifetime. So easy and only 4 ingredients if you count water :)

1. 1/2 pound of dry black eyed peas
2. 12 ounces sliced salt pork
3. 1 can of Rotel with lime and cilantro
4. Water

Place the peas in your crock pot and cover with water. Let them soak for two or three hours while you celebrate New Years Eve. After midnight add more water covering the peas completely with about an inch of water over the level of the peas. Add the salt pork and set the crock pot on low. Let them cook all night long. In the morning, add more water if needed and stir. They will be ready by lunchtime. Stir in the Rotel just before serving. Yummy Yummy Yummy. It you want it to be Hoppin John, serve it over rice.

Don't forget to turn on the crock pot. I almost did.

Happy New Year.