Anne Morgan Strictly speaking, Delia Smith’s broccoli and Stilton soup is her quick broccoli and cauliflower soup with the cheese left to you, and I choose Stilton. Onion softens in butter, the florets sweat under a lid, then milk and stock simmer gently for 20 minutes. Blended in the pan with the Stilton stirred through, it’s a 40-minute soup for 2 or 3.
There’s no soup by that name in her books that I can find. This one comes from How to Cheat at Cooking (2008), where a bag of ready-prepared florets and a tub of ready-grated Parmesan do most of the work. She says the cheese is your choice, though, naming Roquefort, Gorgonzola and Cheddar, so Stilton is very much in the spirit of it.
It’s also a different soup from her other blue-cheese ones. Her Stilton soup builds a richer base on leek, potato, flour and cider, and her cauliflower soup with Roquefort makes its own stock from the trimmings.
This is the quickest of the three, with no potato, no flour and no cream.
Delia Smith’s Broccoli and Stilton Soup
Course: SoupsCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy3
servings5
minutes35
minutes210
kcalDelia calls it cauliflower cheese and broccoli soup (page 168), and this is it made with Stilton. Enough for 2 or 3, or 4 small bowls as a starter.
Ingredients
- For the soup:
1 pack (about 350g/12oz) ready-prepared cauliflower and broccoli florets
75g (3oz) Stilton, crumbled (see the first note)
1 teaspoon butter
1 small onion, peeled and chopped, or 2 tablespoons frozen diced onion
1 bay leaf
a few gratings of whole nutmeg
275ml (10fl oz) milk
570ml (1 pint) hot vegetable stock
salt and freshly milled black pepper
Directions
- Onion: Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a low heat, add the onion and let it soften for 5 minutes.
- Florets: Add the cauliflower and broccoli, put the lid on and leave them to sweat for 10 minutes, still on a low heat.
- Simmer: Pour in the milk and stock, add the bay leaf, nutmeg and some seasoning, and stir. Cover again and keep it at the gentlest simmer for 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft.
- Blend: Fish out the bay leaf and purée the soup in the pan with a stick blender.
- Stilton: Over a low heat, stir in the Stilton until it has melted, keeping the soup below the boil. Taste for seasoning and serve with good bread.
Notes
- Delia's printed cheese is 2 slightly rounded tablespoons of ready-grated Parmesan, simmered with everything else. The 75g of Stilton is my own amount, more than her Parmesan but less than the 110g her Stilton soup uses with the same amounts of stock and milk. Adding it at the end, off the boil, is borrowed from that soup too.
- For a soup that's all broccoli, use 350g of broccoli florets instead of the mixed pack, which is my own swap.
FAQs
How do I use purple sprouting broccoli instead?
Use it in February and March, when it’s in season. Delia’s vegetable guide (How to Cook Book Two, 1999) gives ordinary broccoli, or calabrese, an English season of June to November, and welcomes purple sprouting as the first green vegetable of spring. She describes its flavour as sweet and very green, with tender stalks.
She likes to eat the leaves, stalks and heads when it’s very young, so I’d trim only the woody ends and use 350g in place of the pack. In my experience the purple fades to green as it cooks, so don’t be surprised by the colour.
What about frozen broccoli?
Delia’s all for shopping for the freezer in her cheat book, and frozen diced onion is already an option on the card. Her soup uses fresh florets, though, so frozen ones are my own swap.
I’d add 350g straight from the bag and give them 5 minutes under the lid instead of 10, as they soften faster. I’d expect a slightly paler soup with a softer flavour.
What can I do with the broccoli stalks?
If you’re cutting up a whole head rather than buying a pack, I’d keep the stalk. Peel off the tough skin, dice it small and soften it with the onion, which is my own way of using it up.
Delia keeps the stalk for a broccoli stir-fry in that same vegetable guide, sliced into tiny pieces on the diagonal, so the habit fits her cooking.
Can I make broccoli and Stilton soup in a soup maker?
Yes, though the method here is mine, not hers. Soften the onion in a pan first unless your machine has a sauté setting, then add the florets, milk, stock, nutmeg and seasoning, without the bay leaf, and choose the smooth setting.
I’d stir the Stilton into the hot soup once the machine has finished, so it melts gently rather than boiling with the rest.
Why has my soup gone grainy?
In my experience it’s usually because the cheese got too hot. In her Stilton soup, Delia takes the pan only to just below boiling once the cheese is in, and she warns against boiling it when you reheat it.
If it has already split, a short whizz with the stick blender off the heat can bring it back together, which is my own rescue rather than hers.
Can I freeze broccoli and Stilton soup?
Yes, I’d just freeze it before the Stilton goes in. Neither of her recipes covers freezing, so this is my advice: cool the blended soup, freeze it in portions, and add the cheese once it’s thawed and hot.
I find a portion thawed overnight in the fridge reheats in about 10 minutes.
