Creamy Broccoli-Cheese Soup

I made my own brown rice in the remainder of some homemade chicken broth I had made earlier in the week.  This was blended up with the milk ahead of time.  Having an immersion blender really helps with the finishing blending but even so, the family was just 'ho hum' on the finished product.  Probably won't make again but I'm glad I tried something new.  I've never used rice as a thickener before.

When I want to thicken a soup, I put in a diced potato in the broth when cooking, then puree.

I have no objection to the rice taste other reviewers mentioned. Maybe that's because I used regular whole-grain brown rice and not instant. I found the soup creamy and filling without tasting too decadent. But the addition I made that put it over the top was a healthy shake of smoked paprika! Quite amazing.

Like some of the other reviewers, we could taste the rice in the final dish, which was a little weird. It also didn't seem any creamier than other CL broccoli soups we've tried, so I won't be trying the rice technique again.

This is a great, easy weeknight soup. We've also made it with zucchini instead of broccoli and loved it. A Great way to use up a lot of zucchini.

I really liked this. I thought it had great flavor & plenty of seasoning. I didn't change anything on this recipe. It did take a bit of time to get the rice to break down.  I will definitely make this again.

I didn't think the soup had very much flavor. I could really taste the rice, which was used for the creaminess. I added some salt after it was in the bowl, and that seemed to help some. I might try it again, but with some additional spices, and/or more onion and garlic.

This is a wonderful recipe- very flavorful and pretty filling. I made it exactly as directed and wouldn't change anything. It's an ideal lunch meal, although I doubt it would be enough for dinner on it's own- at least in my family.

I was very skeptical about this recipe, but since I love broccoli cheese soup and never eat it because it can be very caloric and unhealthy, I thought I would try this lighter/healthier version. Even the picture in the magazine looked brownish and lumpy, but I still tried it. Wow, I was amazed! I used pre-cooked brown rice and added a little broth to it and microwaved it for about 5 minutes to get it mushy, then followed the recipe exactly. The rice mixture pureed out very smoothly and the soup had a really nice, thick, creamy consistency.