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1. Cut up and steam the broccoli and cauliflower. If you have leftovers, perfect.
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2. In a large pot or Dutch oven, fry up the onion, celery and carrot.
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3. When the veggies are getting well cooked, add potato. You could definitely add more potato too, I just had so much other stuff, I didn't want my pot to overflow.
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4. Fry up for a few minutes. When the potatoes start to brown up, dump all of the contents of the pan into a bowl.
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5. Now use the same pot to make a cream sauce. Turn the heat to medium/low. You could start by de-glazing the pot with some stock or white wine. But if you want to skip this step, just put the butter in the pot and let it melt. Don't burn it. That is tragic. When the butter is bubbly, add the flour and whisk for a couple of minutes as the flour gets nice and golden.
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6. Slowly pour in the whole milk. You could use some half-and-half, too, if you are feeling decadent. Whisk constantly as the mixture thickens.
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7. Add the stock (chicken or veggie) and keep stirring.
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8. Put the all of the cooked veggies in the creamy liquid. If you need to, add more milk/stock to cover the veggies.
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Cook the soup for about 30 minutes or so. You want all of the vegetables to be soft.
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9. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup. If you don't have an immersion blender, I urge you to get one. They are inexpensive and invaluable for making soup, tomato sauce, smoothies, etc. Seriously, transferring soup to a blender is a pain.
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10. Add 2 to 4 cups of grated cheddar cheese, depending on how cheesy you like your soup. You could also add some Swiss or Gruyere. I will admit that I added about 1/2 cup of Velveeta.
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11. Stir it up until the cheese melts. Add salt, pepper to taste and more milk/stock if your soup gets too thick. Garnish with grated cheese.
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Enjoy!
