Broccoli Cheese Soup and Borden Dairy's Mooo-dy Summer Mania!

I don’t know about y’all but we are big milk drinkers in our house, especially my daughter Ava. We live in a small town but luckily Wal-Mart here carries my favorite milk brand: Borden. Today I want to share with you a delicious recipe I made with Borden milk: Broccoli Cheese Soup. Creamy, cheesy, and chock full of broccoli goodness, the base of this soup is simply Borden milk and stock with some veggies and seasoning! Easy peasy {and oh so cheesy!}.

From now until July 31st you {or your kiddos!} can win some pretty awesome prizes courtesy of Borden and the fun book series Judy Moody and Stink! Purchase Borden half gallons and enter the
unique code found on the container to download exclusive items/activities
from Mooo-dy Summer Mania.

There are a total of 9 downloadable items you can choose from when you enter your code, including downloadable stories about Judy Moody and Stink – including an original, never-before published story – sample chapters from the books, and activities.

Enter your codes here: bordendairy.com/moodymania

Wait there’s more!

Be sure to enter the Way Cool Sweepstakes too for a chance to win some uber-awesome prizes!

o
Grand
Prize – Complete Judy Moody and Stink library signed by the author/illustrator

o
First
Prize – signed copy of New Judy Moody and Stink Book

o
Second
Prize – Mystery Judy Moody and Stink Book

Third Prize – Uber-Awesome Temporary Tattoo

Hurry! This promotion runs through July 31st!

Scroll down for the Broccoli Cheese Soup recipe and learn more about this awesome promotion!

Borden milk is putting the “moo” in Megan McDonald’s Judy Moody series with a summer reading campaign featuring the nine-year-old and her brother, Stink, Mooo-dy Summer Mania.

Ingredients:

3 small/medium heads of broccoli (stems removed and broccoli florets diced)
½ cup shredded carrots
1 small sweet yellow onion, minced
2 garlic cloves. pressed
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded (plus additional for garnish)
5 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
3 cups Borden milk (I used 2%)
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
½ tsp. dried thyme
salt and white pepper to taste
bread, toasted for serving

Directions:

In a small skillet, melt 1 tbsp butter over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute until softened. Remove from heat.

In a large pot or double boiler, add remaining 4 tbsp butter. Melt over medium heat and whisk in flour to make a roux (mixture will clump).

Turn heat to medium low, slowly whisk in milk and chicken stock until smooth.

Bring to a simmer and add onions, carrots, and broccoli.

Stir, bringing back to a simmer, and cover and cook for 20 minutes until vegetables are tender.

Stir in cheese, nutmeg, thyme, salt, and pepper. Whisk until smooth and let simmer for a couple more minutes.

If you like a smooth soup without the chunky vegetables pour the soup into a food processor or blender and pulse for a few seconds until smooth. I like some texture to my soup so I added half my soup to a food processor and left half in the pot.

Serve warm topped with more shredded cheddar cheese and toasted bread on the side.

Start by melting 1 tbsp butter in a skillet. Add diced onions and garlic and saute until softened. Remove from heat.

In a large pot add 4 tbsp butter. Let melt then whisk in flour to make a roux.

I use a lot of broccoli in my soup {well, it is broccoli soup}.

This is 3 heads of broccoli, stems removed and florets diced.

Now add 3 cups of Borden milk {I used 2%} and 2 cups of chicken stock.

If you want this to be vegetarian you can use vegetable stock but I love the depth of flavor chicken stock adds to soup.

Slowly whisk the milk and stock in to the roux and bring to a simmer over med-low.

I like to add a variety of veg to my soup so along with the diced broccoli I add shredded carrots.

Whisk in cooked onions and the broccoli and carrots and bring to a simmer again.

Cover, let cook until tender, about 20 minutes.

Oh yeah, that’s a lot of good for you broccoli!

Time to stir in some cheesy goodness! Add 2 cups of shredded cheddar to the soup.

Stir until smooth then season.

Nutmeg is easily one of my favorite spices {it’s not just for baking!}.

Add some fresh grated nutmeg and salt and white pepper to the soup in the last few minutes of cooking.

I don’t know about y’all, but I have to have bread with my soup. I like to serve my soup in a bread bowl or serve toasted garlic pita or Naan {pictured above} bread cut into dippable triangles on the side.
I added pesto to mine.

Not even 2 and already a big help in the kitchen. Ava liked to stir the soup for me 🙂

Optional: If you want a creamier soup without the chunky vegetables pour the soup into a food processor or blender and pulse for a few seconds until smooth. I like some texture to my soup so I added half my soup to a food processor and left half in the pot. Delicious!

That is a bowl full of goodness!

Be sure to top your serving bowls of soup with a hearty sprinkle of shredded cheddar {you can’t have too much cheese, right?}

Dinner is served {and will be gobbled up in minutes I’m sure!}

Growing kids need to read stories that keep up with their growing minds! Download an exclusive Judy Moody + Borden story by redeeming the code on Borden Milk.

My princess loves books and story time! We go to the library often and really enjoy the story hour there each week. We have books in every room and one of my favorite things to do with Ava is cuddle together and read a book. I can’t wait until she starts to read and I can introduce her to the Judy Moody series!