I made a HUGE pot last night cause it was cold. So I figured I'd send along my recipe. The batch serves about 8-10 people, but I feed 4 (with seconds) and freeze the rest.

Ingredients:
5 tblsp unsalted butter
One large yellow onion chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp regular pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground thyme
1 tblsp mined garlic
5-6 tblsp AP flour
6 cups chicken stock or broth (low sodium)
1 package of frozen broccoli, thawed
3 russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2" chunkes, boiled till just under fork tender (like for potato salad).
1 cup heavy cream
2 1/2 cups Velveeta Cheese (18 oz.), cubed

In a medium pot: melt 3 tblsp butter over medium high heat. Add onions and saute until soft. Add garlic, salt and pepper and saute another minute. Slowly sprinkle flour and mix constantly till all juices are soaked up and mixture is thick and clumpy (may take 5 spoons, maybe a little more sometimes). Slowly add in chicken stock, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium and simmer about 5 minutes. Will thicken slightly. Add in the broccoli and potatoes. Allow soup to come back to a slight simmer.

Use hand held immersion blender to lightly puree some of the broccoli and potatoes. I like chunks in my soup, so I don't puree the heck out of it. You can do yours how ever you want. You could also use a hand masher.

Add in cream and allow soup to come to a BARE SIMMER. DO NOT BOIL. Begin adding in cubes of velveeta and stirring till all cheese is melted. Add remaining butter. Turn heat lower as you add in cheese to prevent curtling.

This is better than chilli's!
I top mine with fresh Pico de gallo and croutons.

Enjoy!

Sounds good!

MMMMM, sounds great! I would have to replace those croutons with some HOT & SPICY CHEEZITS though.

Sounds great. If I were making it for me, I'd use fresh broccoli, take out heavy cream (gotta try and make it healthy) and add 1/2 cup low fat milk, 1/2 cup buttermilk. Also, I'd go with cheddar cheese. Dang I'm getting hungry!

JustinT, just some thoughts I have about your comments:

1. Milk "could" curdle at the temps required to melt chesse = not good eats. So if you do use milk, try to keep the temps low as possible.

2. Cheddar cheese is ok, but Velveeta has 1/3 less fat than traditional cheddar (since you're concerned about health). Cheddar (or low fat cheddar) will not melt as smooth as the velveeta, thus why I use it. I hate to admit it, but its really works better in soups. I don't use it for anything else.

3. Fresh broccoli is great! Just boil it or steam it first. I encourage you to take time and research about frozen veggies. They are suprisingly good as long as they are pure in product. Fresh will yeild a better texture if you're going to leave some whole. But for the sake of puree, it wont really matter.

If you do want to cut back on something: use 1/2 and 1/2 instead of heavy cream AND leave out the last portion of butter.

Figure about 340 calories per bowl (per this recipe). 18 grams of fat (eek).
I'm a health nut too. Just run or cycle a little longer that day.

Robert, the buttermilk is actually what is MOST likely to curdle. If you dump cold buttermilk right in the soup, it WILL curdle. If mixing dairy into soup, I always "temper" it. Never had any problem, and I don't bring it back to a boil after dairy goes in.

For velveeta, I just really hate using cheese product. I have and will use it in a pinch, since it is very melty, and I can keep it in my pantry so it's always on hand.

For being healthy on the cheese, I'd use an 8 oz package of shredded cheddar to cut back on fat/calories, probably leave out the butter too.

I wish I could make everything with max butter, cheese, and cream, but I just eat too much of it! Love your recipes, I just always take my own spin on all of them, and thought others would like to hear. Not trying to rag on your recipe, it looks great.

See, I've read the caloric count between the velveeta and the cheddar and from what I read, the velveeta is a better?

I know you're not ragging on my recipe, I'd never take it that way. Hell, its cooking, we all spin our own things into other peoples recipes. Ya gotta like what you make!

man that sounds good right now....

It probably is better on a caloric sense. I think just the fact that it can't be called cheese makes me avoid it. But I'd just use less cheese total.

You could use less cheese, and increase the potato content for a natural thickener. OR sub 8 oz of stock for 8 oz of light beer so its a broccoli potato beer cheese soup and the wheat in the beer will thicken it.

Damn that sounds good. Why didn't i think of that sooner!?

Sometimes you just have to talk it through.

I had the same thing last night but in a can of Progresso..I bet mine wasn't near as good.