Chilled broccoli soup

The July 2014 issue of Food and Wine magazine arrived recently in the mail. Inside is a recipe by Grant Achatz for a chilled zucchini soup, where the zucchini is caramelized before it's blended into soup. It's not zucchini season here yet, unfortunately. However, I did have a couple of heads of broccoli in the fridge from this week's box, so I decided I'd try to make a chilled broccoli soup.

Since I couldn't caramelize the broccoli, I decided to caramelize a vidalia onion. It takes a while, so start this first. Slice the onion, then add olive oil and some salt.

While the onions are cooking, wash and chop the broccoli. I used everything, from the stem to leaves to florets.

 Once in the pot, add water to cover as well as a little salt.

Bring to a boil, then cook about 5 minutes. The stems should feel fork tender, but not mushy. Turn off the heat, leaving the broccoli and cooking water to cool.

Continue to cook the onions until they're ready.

Put everything into the blender and puree until smooth.  If your blender isn't large enough, do this step in two batches. Note that blending boiling liquid is a really bad idea, hence letting the broccoli and water cool. Besides, you won't be eating the soup until it's cold anyway.

 I like to store soups in canning jars, which makes it easy to pack for lunches.

I served the soup for lunch the next day with some toasted almonds and a bit of olive oil.  I think it would also be good with a garlicky crouton or with some greek yogurt and chopped chives.

The amazing thing is that the soup is less broccoli tasting that I'd have expected, perhaps because it's been pureed so thoroughly. Despite his aversion to broccoli, the husband enjoyed this soup.