Cheesy Vegetable Chower

I found this recipe HERE.  It took me about an hour and half to make including all the chopping.  It was a huge hit!  We love creamy soups in our family!

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped carrot

1 stalk celery, 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.

Veggies in butter, yum!

Veggies after the broth was added.

After the flour mixture and milk were added it started to look more like a creamy soup, but it still wasn't thickening like I thought it should.  My potatoes ended up getting overly done (which I love) because I had to let the soup boil for so long trying to get it to thicken.  Then I added the cheese, which helped, but not as much as I would have liked.  I thought maybe when I cooled it would thicken.  It did a little.  Anyway, it was yummy and my 2 year old went back for seconds!  That's huge since getting her to eat anything is hard!