Mum's Broccoli & Stilton Soup Recipe

Now I cannot take all the credit for this recipe, as this was my attempt at trying out my mum’s classic broccoli and Stilton soup (and trying to make it slightly healthier.) When I was younger, mum’s blue cheese soup used to be the thing of my nightmares as its main components were my two most feared and hated foods. However when I came home from university last winter she whizzed up a batch one evening, using the leftovers from the Sunday lunch cheese board, and I thought I’d give it another go. To my surprise I loved it and couldn't believe what I had been missing out on, warm, thick and cheesey, what more could you ask for from a soup? I think over the past year or so my taste buds have matured a great deal, but I’m still not mad about blue cheese, so with my recipe I’ve toned down the blue cheese slightly so you still get that nice tangy flavour, however it’s not too over powering. Cutting down the amount of cheese has also halved the amount of saturated fat so this naughty tasting soup comes in at under 250 calories a bowl.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

•         1 red onion

•          3 cloves of garlic

•          5 sprays of fry light

•          2 leeks

•          1 head of broccoli

•          1 medium sized potato

•          1 chicken stock cube

•          1 vegetable stock cube

•          600ml boiling water

•          1 tablespoon of mixed herbs

•          120g Stilton blue cheese

•          Plenty of black pepper

Method:

Slice the onion and garlic into chunks (don’t worry about your knife skills with this one, everything’s going to be blended up soon anyway) and put into a deep pan with the fry light and place on a medium heat hob. Whilst they begin to cook, roughly chop the leaks and the broccoli and after 5 minutes add these to the pan.

While the veg is starting to soften, peel and finely slice the potato before adding this to the pan along with the stock cubes, boiling water and mixed herbs and give all the ingredients a good stir with a wooden spoon. Place a lid on the pan and leave the soup to bubble away over a low heat for about 10 minutes.

Once the vegetables are soft, remove the pan from the heat and crumble in the stilton cheese along with a healthy helping of ground black pepper. Take a hand blend and whizz the mixture for about 5 minutes until smooth. If the soup is a little thick for you, you can always add more water at this point. Serve in a large bowl with lots of crusty bread to get dunking with!