I am researching recipes for a Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup and they all appear to have cream in them. Albeit only 100 to 125mls. Is cream absolutely necessary or could I substitute milk or sour cream?
Cheers

Just tell yourself that all the goodness in the broccoli more than cancels out any badness in the cream Unless you're just wanting to sub because you don't have any cream!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2016 06:18AM by Jenna.

There isn't any badness in cream. It's a good food, full of fat-soluble nutrients.

If you don't have any (or don't like it) you could substitute a little good quality butter or extra virgin olive oil to round out the flavour of the soup.

I wouldn't use milk as a substitute as the soup would be watery.

I am just wanting a substitute due to having none in the house and I have done my weekly shop

There are several things you could do.

1. Just leave the cream out, with no substitution made. For instance, in this recipe it's optional: [nourishmagazine.co.nz]

2. Make one of these no-cream recipes instead:
[www.bite.co.nz]
[www.wearewhatweeat.co.nz]

3. Or make this one (which appeals to me the most) - no cream and the blue cheese is crumbled over the top instead of being incorporated into the soup, which means you can use as much or as little blue cheese as you like:
[tvnz.co.nz]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2016 06:37AM by J1.

I always have a tin of unsweetened evaporated milk in my pantry which is what I'd use if I had no cream. Another alternative if you have it could be to use yoghurt thinned down with milk instead of cream.
Regards,
Dawn.

I'd avoid using milk/yogurt etc because I find they tend to curdle if simmered. I like TPANDAV's idea of butter or olive oil best.

You are right Griz, I am remiss in not mentioning to add milk/yogurt at the end of cooking and gently reheat but not to simmering point. (I got yogurt spelling correct this time too ha!) I love the richness cream or milk adds to soup.
Regards,
Dawn.

Thanks ladies. I definitely would prefer cream but don't want to go out just for cream. Thanks J1 for those links as well. I do like the look of Annabel White's recipe

Actually another thought - I just remembered I have some clotted cream in the freezer. Would clotted be too thick (like me some days!!)

Ohhhh I love blue cheese and broc soup. I remember a little pub in England (Hampshire - Tutts Clump area) called the Red lion (I know no very original, but anyway their soup was DELICIOUS and full of cream. They served it with doughy buns smothered in butter and lots of black pepper and beer.

Thanks for the reminder

I would use evaporated milk to make it with less fat but in all fairness, Im not having cream that often so i would have headed out to the dairy to get some. I didn't know adding olive oil or butter had the effect of rounding it out - thats a great tip.

Vanessa

BTW I'm making a veg soup tonight with an amazing stock - the trick I think is to use lots of chicken bones. Ive stockpiled a few "supermarket" pre cooked chicken bones and made the stock last night. The smell was delicious and today the stock had gone quite jelly like so Im guessing its full of flavour.
Ive added broccoli, cauli, leeks, onion, carrot, a random tomato and some pumpkin. MMMMMMM Im looking forward to dinner tonight.

Vanessa

It's funny because I can't stand creamy soups. The cream seems to rob the flavour and smear the palate. If ever there's pumpkin soup or tomato soup on a cafe menu and I feel like it and it doesn't already say "creamy...soup", I ask if there's cream in it and choose something else if the answer's yes. My recipe folder has delicious soup recipes I've removed the cream from

BTW Dawn, you were perfectly correct with "yoghurt" - you can spell it either with or without an h. Growing up I always thought of the usage without an h as being American, but it's becoming a lot more common here now, as are a lot of other American spellings/expressions.

I think I've always spelt 'yogurt' with an 'h' but when I looked at Griz's spelling I thought I'd been spelling the word incorrectly! CarolynC, thanks for your explanation, I will remember that.
Regards,
Dawn.

Thanks for all the responses. I got my Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup made - and used half a small tub of clotted cream I had in the freezer (a family member brought it to a family get together meal function and as it wasn't used I froze it, and forgot about it). The soup was lovely and creamy.

With regards American spellings/expressions taking over, I had to laugh at a post on FB which was a photo of a Letter to the Editor in a UK newspaper, exactly with regards to this point. Have attached the photo