What's for lunch? This recipe for broccoli and stilton soup is perfect for the cold snap

Add some sharp flavours with leftover cheese to your bowl for the perfect winter warmer

Use up the ends of cheese in this yummy soup.

From now until the end of December, it is likely that you will find some odds and ends of fancy cheese languishing at the back of your fridge. If they are hard cheeses, like Pecorino, Parmesan and aged Cheddar, you can freeze them either whole or grated into a lucky dip bag of cheese that can be whipped out and sprinkled into sauces on top of gratins or pizzas. If it is soft or blue cheese, it’s a little harder to freeze and better to incorporate into a lunch or snack board.

I love to add cheese to my soups. They give a piquancy that can’t be achieved by anything other than anchovies. The depth of flavour and instant silky texture that comes from incorporating a small piece of cheese into a large pot is an instant luxury.

Broccoli and cauliflower work well with blue cheese and I generally find a clutch of both in my fridge at this time of year. This soup is rich and wholesome and is best served with a rye cracker or treacle bread. Enjoy.

Broccoli and blue cheese soup

recipe by:Ciara McDonnell

This soup is rich and wholesome and is best served with a rye cracker or treacle bread. Enjoy!

Servings

2

Preparation Time

 30 mins

Cooking Time

 10 mins

Total Time

 40 mins

Course

 Main

Cuisine

 European

Ingredients

• 25g butter

• 2 potatoes, peeled and finely chopped

• 1 large onion, peeled and chopped onion

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 1 head and stalk of a broccoli

• 1 litre hot chicken or vegetable stock

• 140g blue cheese (Stilton works well)

Method

1. In a covered saucepan, sweat the potatoes and onion in butter with salt and pepper for ten minutes until soft.

2. Cut the broccoli into small florets, remove the tough skin from the stem and finely slice. Add the broccoli to the vegetables and cook for another five minutes or so.

3. Pour in the hot stock and cook for five more minutes. Allow to cool for ten minutes, and liquidise either in a jug blender or with a stick blender, adding in the blue cheese before giving a final whizz.

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