Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Ham Soup
Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Ham Soup
Delicious and easy! Not an overpowering cheese sauce. Takes several steps to make but still very easy. Once it goes in the slow cooker, 6 hours on low is perfect, you do not have to touch it at all. I made this on 10 Aug 2016, my comments below. Recipe modified slightly to reflect my findings.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup butter, this is 1/3 of a standard block of butter
- 1 large onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 6 tablespoons all purpose flour
- salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
- 5 cups chicken stock, fresh or from powder
- 6 cups fresh broccoli, cut to bite size pieces, plus stems
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 cup milk
- 250 grams Cheddar cheese, this is one block, shred the whole block
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- 3 cups ham, cooked, cubed, I get thick ham slices at Macro
Instructions
- In your slow cooker, add the chicken stock or 5 cups of water and a heaping tablespoon of chicken stock powder and the thyme, stir to mix. Cut up the broccoli, dice the onion, and measure out the flour and the evaporated milk.
- Melt butter in a large non stick skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until they begin to soften, about 3-4 minutes.
- Whisk in flour and season lightly with salt and pepper then cook, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes. While whisking, slowly pour in evaporated milk (whisk well to smooth). Cook mixture, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken (this only takes a few minutes).
- Pour the onion mixture in the slow cooker along with chicken broth and whisk to mix well, then add the broccoli. Cover with lid and cook on High setting for 2 1/2 - 3 hours or Low setting for 6 hours.
- Turn heat to Warm setting and stir in milk, then add in shredded cheddar cheese and Parmesan cheese and stir to blend. Season with salt and pepper to taste, allow to heat through for about 30 minutes, serve.
Notes
Cheese cost 180 Baht for a 250 gram block of New Zealand import cheese, brand is Mainland. The ham slices, 3 thick slices was about 125 Baht, the broccoli was about 50 Baht. This comes out to about $1.30 per serving for 8 servings. If you use cubed chicken, the price would be at about $1 per serving.
Variants: Substitute cooked diced chicken for ham, add sliced mushrooms.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
I made this on 10 Aug 2016, and I will say, this is excellent! Even my Thai wife loved it, and actually heating it up this morning so she can have some for breakfast. I modified the recipe slightly with my findings, basically 2 heads of broccoli is 6 cups, go with that, include the stems as well. Only thing I did not have as the recipe stands now is the Parmesan cheese, other than that, this is a simple and easy recipe to make. It is not an overpowering cheese sauce, the soup is delicious! Highly recommended, on my Go-to list!