Broccoli Cheese Soup

Marathon Monday. I wasn't working the route this year, but I watched from a friend's apartment on Comm Ave with Sean D. and a cooler full of Sam Adams and sub sandwiches. The runners streamed past like a river of determination and Mylar blankets, and Sean D. — history teacher to his core — kept pointing out the spots where the 2013 bombing happened and talking about resilience in that quiet, reverent way he gets when something matters to him. I held his hand and watched the runners and felt that Boston thing, that impossible, stubborn, beautiful Boston thing where the whole city decides together that they will not be broken.

Tuesday back on the floor, and it hit me sideways. A patient — Mr. Alvarez, forty-one, pancreatic — took a turn. His family was there, all of them, packed into the room like they could hold him here by sheer numbers. His mother had brought empanadas. They were sitting on the windowsill getting cold while she held her son's hand and prayed in Spanish, and I stood in the doorway doing vitals and thinking about how food just sits there waiting when people can't eat it, how it's still an act of love even when no one touches it. Mr. Alvarez stabilized by Wednesday. The empanadas didn't make it. But his mother brought fresh ones Thursday.

I tried a new recipe this week — Maureen's clam chowder. I've been watching her make it for twenty-five years, and I figured it was time to try it myself. I called her for the recipe and she said, "Katherine, I don't have a recipe. I just make it." This is Maureen's answer for everything. She cooks by feel, by instinct, by the accumulated wisdom of a woman who's been feeding a firehouse family for thirty years. I did my best from memory: potatoes, clams, cream, onions, celery, a criminal amount of butter. The result was... close. It was good. It was not Maureen's. Maureen's is a religious experience. Mine was a decent prayer. Sean D. ate two bowls and said it was perfect, which is what he says about everything I cook, which is both sweet and entirely unhelpful.

Sean D. decided on the West Broadway apartment. He moves in July. Three blocks from my place. I'm trying not to read too much into it. Meghan says I'm reading exactly the right amount into it.

I don’t have Maureen’s recipe, and I never will — because Maureen’s recipe is thirty years of instinct that can’t be written down. But sitting with the uncertainty of Sean D. and the West Broadway apartment and whatever Meghan thinks I’m reading into things, it felt right to try anyway: to cook something warm and steady, the kind of soup that doesn’t ask you to be precise, that forgives you for guessing. Broccoli cheese soup is that kind of recipe — forgiving, familiar, the sort of thing you make when you want to feel held by something simple. It’s not Maureen’s clam chowder. But it’s mine, and it’s close enough to comfort.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 50 min | Total Time: 1 hr 5 min | Servings: 6 bowls

Ingredients

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 medium yellow onions, coarsely chopped
6 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (reduce or omit if sensitive to spice)
1 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, divided, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 pounds broccoli with stalks (3 large or 4 medium)
1 large (about 12 ounces) russet potato, peeled and cut into 1 to 2-inch chunks
6 cups water
4 to 8 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese, depending on your mood
Thinly sliced chives or green onions, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Cook the aromatics. Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium-low heat. Add the onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, 1/4 teaspoon of the salt, and about 10 twists of black pepper. Stir to combine, then cover the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions have softened and are just starting to turn golden, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Prep the broccoli stalks. Meanwhile, slice off and discard the rough bottom ends of broccoli stalks. Use a vegetable peeler to peel off the tough outer skin on the stalks, then discard those bits. Slice the stalks off and cut them into pieces about 1 to 2-inches big. Set aside.
Prep the florets. Working with the broccoli tops now, cut as closely to the base of the florets as you can. Slice any remaining stalks into chunks to match the rest. Reserve the broccoli florets — we’ll use them in a bit.
Simmer the base. Add the chunks of broccoli stalk and potato to the pot and stir. Pour in 6 cups water and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt. Raise the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and cover the pot.
Cook until tender. Simmer until the broccoli stalks and potatoes are tender throughout and easily split apart when pierced with a fork, about 20–25 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the reserved florets into small pieces (chop them all in one direction, then turn the cutting board and chop again).
Blend the soup. Once the potato and stalks are tender, add half of the florets to pot, stir, cover, and cook until they’re bright green, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat. Working in a couple of batches (never fill your blender past the maximum fill line or it could explode!), carefully transfer several cups of the mixture — both the liquid and solids — to your stand blender. Blend until completely smooth, then transfer the mixture to a heat-proof vessel temporarily as you blend the rest. Alternatively, use an immersion blender (it just won’t be as lusciously creamy). Return the purée to the pot.
Add remaining florets and cheese. Return the pot to medium heat and add the remaining florets. Cover the pot and cook until they’re bright green and easily pierced through by a fork, another 4 to 7 minutes. Add almost all 4 ounces of the grated cheddar cheese (reserve a small handful for garnish) and stir until smooth. Carefully taste (it’s hot) and stir in more cheese if you’d like more indulgent flavor/creamy texture, more salt for more overall flavor, and/or more black pepper for kick.
Serve and store. Divide the soup into bowls and top with a sprinkle of cheese, plus some thinly sliced chives and/or red pepper flakes, if desired. Leftover soup keeps well in the refrigerator for up to 4 days (though the color darkens a bit with time). This soup should freeze well, too.

Nutrition (per serving)

Broccoli Cheese Soup — Cooking by Feel, Reaching Toward Something You Can’t Quite Hold