2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup finely chopped carrot
1 celery stick, finely chopped (feel free to add more
celery if you like celery; I don’t, so I don’t add much)
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
4 cups chicken broth (I usually use a mixture of
low-sodium chicken broth and broth made with chicken soup base because it gives
it such nice flavor)
2 large baking potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 Tablespoon flour
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup milk
2 cups chopped broccoli
2 heaping cups shredded cheddar cheese
Melt the butter in a large soup pot. Add onions,
carrots, and celery and saute over medium heat until tender. Add garlic
and cook 1 or 2 additional minutes. Add chicken broth and potatoes, bring
to a boil, and cook until potatoes are tender. Mix flour with water, add,
and simmer until soup is slightly thickened. Add milk and broccoli and
cook until broccoli is just tender and soup is heated through. Stir in
cheese, allow to melt, and serve.
Crockpot version:
I placed 2 cans of vegetable broth (im a vegetarian) in
the crockpot with all the other ingredients minus the water, flour, cheese and
milk. I saw the previous recommendation of 4cups of broth being too much but i
added a cup more of broccoli and OMITTED the water to “make up” for it – it was
still kinda runny but ill explain more about that later. Instead of celery and
carrots, i used a broccoli slaw mix sold in the produce section at the grocery
store next to all the bagged lettuce etc. I cut up 2 medium potatoes (skin on-i
like it better that way) I used frozen broccoli and fresh onion. I didn’t saute
anything, just plopped it all in. im pretty lazy. I added salt, pepper and
crushed red pepper flakes and put crockpot on high for 5-6 hours. then once the
potatoes were soft, i heated up fat free half and half in place of the milk to
make it more creamy i added 1 tbsp of flour and stirred to make a rue. it
didn’t quite make it and thicker so i added the runny rue to the crockpot and
stirred as i put in cornstarch. i stirred until it was a consistency i wanted.
then i added 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese stirred and stirred some more. i
put it back to low for about a half an hour and then i ate it. i ate a lot of
it. it was good and came out great. hope this solves everyone’s crockpot
question. i took on the challenge and i succeeded happily 
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