Creamy Broccoli and Cheddar Soup

Cheddar and broccoli soup is classic comfort food, but many recipes yield gloppy, glorified cheese sauce or a mess of bland, gray vegetables. Here’s how we created our creamy soup that tasted like fresh, bright green broccoli:

Test Kitchen Discoveries

• To ensure the most broccoli flavor, we cooked the fibrous broccoli stems until they were soft, and then added the cream and broccoli florets. This ensured that the florets didn’t overcook and retained their bright color and fresh flavor.
• Adding the cheddar cheese at the end of cooking keeps it from clumping and separating.