When I say winter is coming, it's not a Game of Thrones reference. I've never even seen that show because I suspect it has way too much gratuitous blood and boobs to interest me. No, I mean winter really is just around the corner. Are you prepared? Are you stocked up on freeze-proof washer fluid and pet safe sidewalk salt? Do you have Pinterest-worthy crafts on hand for the inevitable cabin fever that will overcome the kids when school gets called off for half an inch of snow for 3 days in a row? Have you pulled all the tank tops and maxi dresses out of your closet, to be replaced by sweaters and wellies for sloshing around in half melted snow? Ugh. What a wretched, soul-sucking season. Thank goodness for warm bowls of homemade soup.
But perhaps you never learned to make homemade soup. Perhaps it all just seemed like too much work, what with the long simmering and occasional stirring and all. Well, have I got great news for you! Turns out your pressure cooker makes throwing together a pot of hearty, steaming hot broccoli cheese soup so easy, it's even less work than driving your ass to Panera to go through the drive-thru. Especially those of you who, like me, have young children that you'd have to bring with you if you left the house in search of soup. I mean, think about it. Do you want to remind everyone to go potty and/or change diapers, ask them 800 times to please, for the love of all that is holy, just pick a flippin' pair of socks and shoes already and put them on, get screamed at when you turn off Bubble Guppies before the episode is over, and then finally wrestle everyone into their carseats? Or do you want to cut up an onion and a few crowns of broccoli and then run your pressure cooker for 8 minutes? Because that would literally be the choice I would be facing.
When I first started imagining how this soup would come together, it seemed pretty straightforward in my head. I read a few recipes online to get some ideas and do you know one version called for 2 cups of half and half and 1 measly cup of broccoli? No kidding. I submit to that person that their recipe ought to be called cream of half and half soup with broccoli garnish. But I digress. I imagined my version to be thickened with a flour and butter roux. But then I remembered all of the warnings I've read about how you never EVER thicken anything you make in the pressure cooker until after it's been cooked. I'm not sure what happens if you thicken first, but, given the dire warnings I've seen, it apparently involves some sort of opening of the gates of hell from which chaos and evil rain down upon your children and your children's children. Or maybe the pot never comes to pressure; I don't know. At any rate, the advice was duly noted, and that's why I went for a non-traditional cornstarch thickener at the end. I briefly considered still making a roux in a separate skillet like I do for my potato soup, but this was super easy and gave the desired endpoint with very little fuss. "Very little fuss" is the key phrase for this recipe in general. Just the way Instant Potheads like it.
There now. We're all one step closer to being ready for winter.
Pressure Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup
I used my 6 qt Instant Pot and this made a nice quantity for 4 people. I used fresh broccoli, but I'm guessing frozen would work out fine with possibly a small sacrifice in flavor. I also used homemade stock because I had homemade veggie stock in the freezer that I had made in the Instant Pot previously, but you can certainly use canned broth. Thanks to my friend Sue, I've recently become a fan of Better than Bouillon instead of canned broth. That would be a good choice, too. Chicken broth is fine if you don't need your soup to be vegetarian. For the milk, I used evaporated because I like that it doesn't break when you stir it into the hot soup. You can use 2% or whole milk instead if you want, but you always run a little risk of it looking curdled.
2 Tbs. butter
1 small onion, diced
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 to 2 lbs. broccoli, cut into large florets and stems cut into 1/2" slices
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 cups water
8 oz. mild cheddar cheese, grated (I prefer to buy a block and grate it myself for better melting)
8 oz. cream cheese, cubed (that's 1 whole block)
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 tsp. cornstarch
Turn the pot to saute and add the butter. When the butter is melted, add the onion and the 1/2 tsp. salt and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the broccoli, stock, and water. Put the lid on the pot and cook on manual for 8 minutes. Do a quick pressure release and then turn the pot back to saute. Stir in the cheeses a little at a time. Keep stirring until they are completely melted. Whisk together the cornstarch and milk until smooth. Slowly stir in the milk mixture and continue stirring until the soup thickens. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.
