Broccoli-Cheddar Soup-Shavuot Linkup

Shavuot is one of the lesser Jewish known holidays in the diaspora. Falling on the 6th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan (in diaspora also on the 7th), it is the anniversary of when G-d gave the Torah to the Jewish people on Mount Sinai. Shavuot literally means weeks and commemorates the seven weeks that we count from Passover (Pesach) to Shavuot. The holiday is also known as Chag HaKatzir or the Festival of Reaping as this is the time of the wheat harvest in Israel. The holiday is also know as Yom Habikurim or the Holiday of the First Fruits.

On Shavuot there is a custom to eat dairy foods. So basically it is a  24 hour (48 hour in the Diaspora)cheesecake, pizza, lasagna, quiche, etc. party. There are various reasons for this custom with a prominent one being that as the Jews had just received the Torah they were still unfamiliar with the Jewish dietary laws (Kashrut) and ritual slaughter. They had to stick to dairy and remain temporary vegetarians until they were well versed in keeping Kosher.

I was in a dilemma before writing this blog. Most dairy dishes are high in cholesterol and not on the top of the healthy list. I thought of blogging about vegan options on Shavuot. I then uttered my mantra to myself:: "Life is about balance" and on Shavuot I will be balancing a lot of cheesy and creamy dishes on my plates! But seriously, I do serve cheese and cheesecake and dishes with cheese but I also serve lots of salads made from veggies and whole grains, etc. Also, we are allowed to enjoy life, especially on special occasions. If you basically lead a healthy lifestyle, some gazillion % cheese won't kill you on Shavuot.

So I decided to try something that I had never made. I have made my share of cheesecakes, quiches, lasagnas, etc. but I had never made broccoli soup with cheese and I must admit, that it is as decadently delicious as it sounds.

The Recipe

Ingredients

1 onion, chopped

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

5 cups milk (I used 1 %)

1 cup 10 % fat cream (half and half to Americans)

3 heads fresh brocolli (around 2 3/4 pounds)

1 pinch nutmeg

2-3 cups grated cheddar cheese

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions

Melt butter in a pot over medium heat and saute the onions for around 5 minutes until golden

Sprinkle flour on top and stir in, cooking for around 1 minute

Add rest of ingredients and bring to a boil.

Cook for 20-30 minutes until broccoli is tender

Add cheddar cheese to boiling soup and stir in until melted.

Puree the soup in batches in a blender or food processor.

Serve in regular bowls or bread bowls (if you want)

Enjoy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Low-fat Vegetable Split Pea Soup: the ultimate comfort food

I hate to be repeating myself, but the need need to open this blog with a big thank you to the Kosher Connection monthly link up. For the past few months, I have been blogging once a month only for this link-up.  I hope to start getting back to at least once every two weeks and ideally to once or twice weekly but in the mean time THANK YOU Kosher Connection!  Briefly, for those who don't remember, not familiar, or new to this blog, Kosher Connection is a bunch of Kosher bloggers from around the world who once a month "link up" and post a recipe based on that month's theme.  This month the theme is comfort food.

Here in Israel we are now in the aftermath of the country's biggest snow and rain storm in 20 years.  13,000 homes are still without electricity.  Public transportation is just starting to go back to normal in Jerusalem (I hope!), schools in Jerusalem and other places are still closed. So what is the best comfort food in this situation? Obviously,soup! If we were dealing with the area of comfort drinks, then this column might be on Hot Cocoa but I'm also not 100 % sure how I would overcome the low fat, low sugar issue with that one...

Back to the soup.  Years ago, in the mid 1990's when not everybody had computers (yes, there was such a time), and all we had was a laptop and a dial-up connection, I joined an email group called the Jewish-Food mailing list which also gave birth to a site containing all the recipes collected from the group.  My soup recipe for you today is loosely based on a recipe posted by a woman named Linda Shapiro who submitted a recipe for vegetable split-pea soup from The Low-Fat Good Food Cookbook.

Here is the recipe:

Low-Fat Vegetable Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

1 pound (500g) dried split peas

2 1/2 quarts (10 cups) water

1-1 1/2 cups chopped onion

1 cup chopped or sliced carrots

1 large or two small sweet potatoes (or 3 med. regular potatoes) chopped into large chunks

2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground black pepper

Directions

Rinse the peas and combine with water. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and let simmer for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Add two more cups of water, the vegetables, salt and pepper and other seasonings if desired.

Return to a boil and then reduce heat again and simmer another time, stirring every 15 minutes.

The soup is done when the peas are creamy, the vegetables are soft but hold their shape and the soup is thick but not stiff ( I find that this soup comes out thinner than most pea soups).

B'Teavon! Enjoy!