It’s cheeseception. I wanted to try that cheesy beer bread in some grilled ham & cheese sandwiches… and I needed some soup for the side, right? Why not up the cheese level with my old broccoli cheese soup or my potato soup? I thought the fiber from the broccoli may be beneficial. 😆
Roasted Broccoli Cheddar Soup and a Cheesy Beer Bread Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwich
I probably should have stuck with a traditional tomato soup to combat the absolute decadent richness, but this soup was pretty damn good. I want to try to make a roasted butternut squash soup eventually too… but not sure that would pair well with this sandwich?
I did spice-up my original broccoli cheese soup recipe. This could be a full meal, or a side to a nice turkey or roast beef sandwich. Recipe down below. That’s what I did this time. I’ll probably make it slightly different next time. Everyone does that, right?
As far as the sandwich, I just cooked some lunchmeat ham for a few seconds on the panini grill, sliced up the cheesy bear bread, buttered the outsides with softened butter, and stacked it with some individually wrapped cheese slices… cooked on high on the countertop grill to sear & melt it all at once. I should have gotten a side view, but I was hungry.
Fresh real bacon would be incredible here, maybe more of it… or even bits of cubed ham.
You could skip the beer & do 1½ cups of water with the ham bullion or Better Than Bouillon. I like to use Straub Amber to cook too.
I wonder if a red bell pepper would be good in this too?
This makes a large pot, so hope you like leftovers.
My apologies to vegans, the lactose-intolerant, and the dairy-allergic.
🥦🧀🥣
OK, so how would you make your broccoli cheddar soup? Can I call this broccoli cheddar when it also includes other kinds of cheese? What are your thoughts on the roasting? Would you try this? Do you have a broccoli cheese soup go-to recipe? How about any tips & tricks?
Like everyone who has a vegetable garden, or even just one potted plant, we have an abundance of zucchini. I was asking AI language models for casserole cooking times & temperatures based on what I had around & could easily grab from the store, and I sort of picked a hybrid of all of them. I used ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, & CoPilot. Originally I had been asking about zucchini bread recipes, then asked about the casserole. It is interesting to bounce ideas off of them.
“Zucchini!” (But, say it like a Jawa yelling “Utini!” in Star Wars.)
I had the idea for the lil’ zucchini things last time I made breaded zucchini & ran out of breadcrumbs before zucchini.
Zucchini Ditalini Chickpea Chikini
I hesitate to call this a casserole, because the kids are on a brainrot social media kick where they have been informed somehow that Crock⬩Pot meals & casseroles are bad. The best part is they both ate & loved it… one even went back for more. It was a hit with the wife too, and I’d eat it again.
Zucchini Ditalini Chickpea Chikini
I felt like making a casserole, but not making a mess by pre-cooking/par-cooking or measuring anything. So… I ended up making two 9″x13″ casseroles. Here it is to the best of my memory.
2 (8 oz.) blocks of cream cheese, softened (Leave it out for a bit, nuke it, or cradle it in your armpits.)
1 (2 cup)bag of shredded white cheddar cheese
1 (2 cup) bag of Havarti cheese
1 (1½ cup) bag of Gouda cheese (Same damn size bag – thanks, shrinkflation!)
1 (32 oz./4 cups) box of chicken stock
1 stick (4 oz./½ cup) butter.
Breadcrumbs – Maybe 3 cups?
2 Tbsp. minced garlic from a jar because elicits unwarranted hate.
Seasonings to taste – I used Rotisserie Chicken seasoning, Mrs. Dash’s Table Blend, Black Pepper, White Pepper, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Paprika, & dried parsley. Ain’t nobody measuring all that.
I was going to include some “bacon pieces,” but I must have left them in the store, or they fell out in the car, or I put them in a weird place or threw them out, because they absolutely are in what may as well be a pocket dimension.
The Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 375°
Grease apparently two 9″x13″ glass baking dishes with a stick of butter.
Get two mixing bowls. In one, whisk the egg, then fold in the cream cheese, the chicken stock, the garlic, the (drained) chickpeas, about half of each of the shredded cheeses, the dry Ditalini, and spices in one mixing bowl.
Slice up the bell pepper, onion, zucchini, & chicken in consistently sized cubes. (If you left the zucchini in the garden too long like I did, cut out the spongy center.) Put all that in the other mixing bowl, toss it with some more of all the spices.
Mix the contents of the two bowls together as you string together new swear words and wish you have an even more ridiculously larger mixing bowl.
Put those into the baking dishes. Or one big one, or a casserole dish, or whatever you’ve got. Cover with foil, place in oven, & bake for 45 min.
Melt the remainder of the stick of butter in a microwave safe bowl. Or a microwave unsafe bowl if you’re an agent of chaos. Dump in some breadcrumbs and toss them in the butter, so the breadcrumbs are coated but not all gross. I used a mix of panko & regular. I did not measure.
Pull from the oven, but leave it on, remove foil.
Spread the remaining shredded cheese on the top of the casseroles, then the buttery breadcrumbs… and put it back in the oven. I swapped it to 350° on a convection setting at this point for 15 minutes… but you do you.
Notes:
YOU DO NOT NEED TO PRE-COOK THE CHICKEN, PASTA, OR VEGETABLES. You certainly can, and it may deepen the flavors and reduce baking time, but I wanted to do this all in one go. I checked the chicken in a few sports with an instant-read and it was a bit over the USDA recommended 165°.
I was going to mix the cheeses together at the end, but why dirty another bowl? I dumped them on almost somewhat evenly.
Obviously, cut out what you don’t like, add what you do, skip stuff, or add stuff.
I may try this again with bacon or ham… but there was a good bit of salt in all the cheeses already, and probably the chickpeas.
I may try this with shredded zucchini and maybe leaving the chicken breast cutlets whole on top. Maybe.
Ricotta instead of cream cheese may be good too.
Use chicken broth, bone broth, vegetable broth, milk, water, or whatever… just give the pasta enough liquid to absorb.
Pizzucchini Teeny Mini
Again, this was a quick idea I had last tame I made air-fried breaded zucchini and ran out of bread crumbs because the zucchini multiplies as I sliced it. I did it in the oven quick after I yanked out the “let’s not call this casserole a casserole.”
Pizzuchini Teeny Mini
Ingredients:
1 normal-sized zucchini.
1 (2 cup) bag of “pizza cheese”
1 (15 oz.) squeeze bottle of pizza sauce
a bit of EVOO
Maybe ½ cup of breadcrumbs
The Method:
Do you really need instructions here? I put the oven on 400° on the air-fryer setting. I didn’t pre-heat it because it was already running.
I sliced the zucchini about ¼-inch thick, and put it on the baking sheet over a bit of EVOO.
I dropped on some sauce, some cheese, and a tiny bit of breadcrumbs.
I put it the oven for 15 minutes.
Notes:
What the hell is “pizza cheese?” It said that on the bag. I guess mozzarella & provolone? Please tell me in the comments that it is all plastic & slowly killing me. Maybe I should have read the bag.
I will probably skip the EVOO or get a cooking rack for the air fryer setting.
~🧀~
OK, so that’s it. Hit me up with suggestions, questions, love, or hate in the comments! Share your zucchini recipes, too!
I made some ham n’ bean soup. I liked it more this time than last time. Here’ the recipe…
Every once in a while I get hungry for this. I make it slightly different every time. This time was pretty god, so I may replicate it. Or at least attempt to.
Ingredients:
2 freezer bags of leftover ham from Easter, cubed.
2 globs of Irish butter using a tablespoon.
Spanish onion, diced.
A stick of celery, chopped
Shredded carrots, chopped even smaller
1 red bell pepper, cubed
1 tsp. of minced garlic
7 cans of beans. I used the Giant Eagle brand. I got butter beans, black beans, pinto beans, navy beans, kidney beans, great northern beans, & cannellini beans. I thought about garbanzo beans and black eyed peas.
I’m impatient so I didn’t use dried beans and soak the overnight while standing on my head facing east while reciting a mantra about not farting after eating this soup or whatever you have to do to do all that properly. Ain’t nobody got time for that. I did drain & rinse them really well. I’m sure this would be fine with ham steaks but the roasted ham from Easter was delicious.
The Method:
I dumped all the beans into a colander and mixed them, then rinsed them pretty good with cold water. I set that aside on a bowl for a minute.
I globbed the butter into the stock pot, put it on a burner, and cranked that shit up to medium-high.
As the butter was melting, I added the onions, and let them sautée a bit. I added some onion powder, garlic powder, and a bit of salt here.
I added the carrots, celery, & bell peppers, then sautéed a little more.
This is where I added the rest of the spices to taste. Use whatever floats your boat. I added the minced garlic last so it didn’t burn.
I tasted this before I did anything else and did so by setting aside a spoonful to cool while I moved on to the next step. I could have eaten just this.
I dumped the canned potatoes along with the water into the mix.
I dumped the beer into the mix.
I got 8 cups of water into a giant mixing cup & added the “better than bullion” and soup base stuff. I went a bit lighter than the directions specify because I always end up making the soup too salty. I also didn’t use a measuring spoon. I used regular spoons & serving spoons. What is this, baking?
I added all the beans, and 4 more cups of water.
I added the ham last as I cubed it. I think at some point I cranked the heat down to medium.
After adding the ham, I brought it to a boil on high, then let it boil on medium-low for 20 minutes, lid off, then pulled it off to rest.
If you’re worried about the taste, take a bite way too soon, scorch your tastebuds, and it won’t matter anyway.
This was pretty tasty. I would only maybe add bacon? Manybe peas or something? What would you add? Would you switch anything out? I’m sure chicken bullion or broth would be good here too.
I like to serve this with some buttered rolls, or even a sandwich. Maybe cornbread would be good too?
So, I have always wanted to make wedding soup, but have never tried it. Until now. Skip to the end if you just want the recipe and none of my shenanigans.
Wedding Soup à la AiXeLsyD13
Wedding soup recipes abound on the internet. Some people are vehement that theirs is the “right” way. Apparently the inclusion of pasta is a beans-in-chili-like debate. I would guess that it depends on your region, heritage, and family traditions. I have none of these ties. I’m just a yinzer that likes food. I did reach out via Facebook to see how others do it. I wanted to try to make the soup because of the tiny pasta, I think. I may have also made some other “controversial” decisions.
Pasta. Even though real Italians apparently don’t include pasta in their soup, I am not Italian. Not remotely, even. Seriously. My wife got me the DNA thing for my birthday a few years back and I’m apparently super English, Scottish, Welsh, & Irish with a bit of Scandinavia and the Iberian Peninsula thrown in. I had to Google the Iberian Peninsula. So, as a Yinzer I am making a stand with pasta in the wedding soup because that’s how I have seen it. Orzo looked too much like rice,and rice in soup is gross. (I know, it is an entirely different consistency. Just accept the fact that rice in soup is gross, you’re wrong if you disagree, and read on.) I did most of my shopping at Aldi, but they had no tiny pasta… so I went to Giant Eagle and got Acini De Pepe. I could have also easily gone with what Barilla calls Pastina (neat tiny stars!) and apparently is not even a thing or it’s a generic thing.
If I would sub out cheese tortellini/farfalle for pastini/acini de pepe in the wedding soup, I could get all my ingredients at @AldiUSA. #fb
I chose to make the meatballs myself, because I like making meatballs. They’re big-ass meatballs because I have poor portion control and couldn’t use the mellon-baller to effectively help reel it in, and who wants a little tiny meatball anyway? I used beef, because cows are tasty. I typically don’t do the lamb/veal/pork mix in any meatballs or meatloaf, so why start now? I also opted for ground beef in lieu of chicken or turkey, because beef. Sheep are for making blankets, not eating… unless you like eating meat that tastes like wool blankets.
In my meatballs, I use Kraft Roasted Red Pepper Italian dressing & crushed seasoned croutons. I also tossed in some extra spices (onion & garlic powder, salt, pepper, and whatever “Italian Seasoning” is), two eggs, and parmesan/romano “shake cheese.” (Does anyone else call it that?) I generally crush the croutons with my hands, but since I was apathetically trying to make smaller meatballs and my 3yo was my helper, I put some in a sandwich baggie and smashed to crap out of them with the shake-cheese bottle. Why use bread crumbs when you can smash stuff? I could totally skip the dressing & toss in whatever spices… but I tried this one time with meatballs to go with spaghetti or lasagna and we liked it, so it stuck. We cooked them in 2 frying pans, because it seemed quick. I like to bake meatballs sometimes too. This really could be a 7-day damn project of soup.
A lot of wedding soup recipes call for shredded chicken. I never really noticed it in the wedding soups I had eaten until at a recent wedding where they left the chicken in sizable chunks. Maybe it was an accident? I have no idea, but I liked it. I felt like I was taking a bite of something instead of creepy little chicken strings being used as a garnish. Also, I decided to cheat and not make stock… or I probably would have roasted then boiled the shit out of a chicken carcass and produced some shredded chicken as well as tasty stock. I grilled the chicken in the manliest way possible outdoors over an open flame like our cavemen ancestors. OK, I cooked it on a counter-top panini grill and attempted to give it some nice criss-crossed grill lines before letting it cool and cutting it into “cubes” with less knife skills than Stevie Wonder. I wanted to know I was eating chicken. I probably put some season salt on it.
I made a mirepoix, I think. I put some butter in the bottom of the soup pot, and heated up some finely chopped carrots, celery (stalks and some of the leafy top), onion, & a bit of parsley and the lazy-people chopped-up-already in a jar garlic. Did those last two mess up the mirepoix? Salt and pepper went in there too, because the Food Network says to season every step or something like that.
Then I added some random boxes of stock & broth from Aldi. Really. I couldn’t decide. So, I got lowfat (that’s all they had) chicken stock, chicken broth, and low sodium chicken broth. They were all those creepy giant juice-boxish containers that no doubt every chicken aspires to reside in someday. I almost bought a vegetable stock, but didn’t. How do you get vegetable stock anyway? Isn’t that just broth? Isn’t the difference between stock & broth the inclusion of bones?
After that, I added the meatballs and chicken and let it boil for a bit. Maybe on like 7 or 8? I hate when recipes say “medium-high” heat. Give me a number, damnit. There are numbers on my oven. Are they there for no reason? How long? I don’t know. Long enough to chop up the “fresh” spinach.
I went for the fresh spinach in a plastic box at Aldi. I didn’t see any with the produce, didn’t catch it in frozen, and bought a can as backup just in case. They didn’t have any endive or escarole that I noticed. I wasn’t sure about Kale but may try that next time. I probably could have added the canned spinach too… it could have used a bit more maybe? Although, my meatball helper who crushed about 4 or 5 meatballs after we cooked them wasn’t a big fan of the soup itself because “big kids don’t like spinach sometimes.” She will eat pasta, grilled chicken, carrots, and meatballs all day every day. But the spinach was a no-go I guess. I think I added about 4 cups of water and 2 chicken bullion cubes in there somewhere.
I added the spinach and the box of acini de pepe at the same time. I let it go for the recommended 9 minutes. I know I had been advised to not do it that way. Cooking the pasta separately first then adding the rest of the soup over it in a bowl would be the level-headed thing to do. I was ready to eat by that point though, so in it went.
It was delicious on the first run if I do say so myself. Upon having leftovers, the acini de pepe swelled to ridiculous proportions. Ha ha. Next time I will cook the pasta first or only use half of a box. Or, I will do it the same way and have wedding pasta. Your soup means nothing to me! My total meat and carb domination can not be culled.
Well, on to the recipe if you even made it this far:
Non-Italian Wedding Soup Recipe:
This is not your ordinary recipe. I don’t measure much. I just throw stuff into a pot, especially with meatballs and soup. Obviously, use whatever you have on hand. Make substitutions. This is a recipe in the loosest sense of the word. This is how I did it this time. I may do it different next time. There probably are some good details above that I neglected to mention down here.
The Meatballs:
3 lb. Ground beef (I think it was 80/20?)
Seasoned Croutons (grab your favorite)
Kraft Roasted Red Pepper Italian dressing
Seasonings
2 eggs, beaten.
Parmesan/Romano “shake cheese”
One day when making meatballs, I grabbed the dressing & croutons because they were on the counter. We were probably having salad with our spaghetti or lasagna. It’s just breadcrumbs & oil with some seasonings in it. I usually smash the croutons by hand, but crushed some of these with a plastic sandwich bag & the Parmesan cheese container since I was trying to make smaller(ish) meatballs. I added some more spices (see below) with the beaten egg, and mixed the meatballs by hand. I used a fancy mellon-baller with an ice-cream-scoop like trigger mechanism that my mom had given me for a few of them, to measure… but they got out of hand easily and I had my 3yo helping. So, they were probably bigger than they needed to be. How much dressing and croutons? Eye it. I do. I like meatballs that are mostly meat, not bread.
The Soup:
A few handsful of Carrots (I started with the baby-cut ones because the kids snack on them.)
Maybe ⅓ of a bunch Celery? (I chopped up the stalks & some leaves.)
An Onion
Fresh Parsley
Spinach – I got a box of the “fresh” stuff from Aldi.
Grilled & poorly diced Chicken Breasts (I did mine on the panini grill)
Home-Made Meatballs (…or use frozen ones from the store.)
3 creepy juice-box-like broth/stock containers. I literally got 3 different kinds of chicken broth.
4-sh cups water
2 chicken bullion cubes
Minced garlic in Olive Oil (because I’m lazy & don’t want to mince my own.)
Butter (enough to cover the bottom of your soup pot when it melts)
Parmesan/Romano “shake cheese”
Shredded Parmesan (Aldi had a fancy little container.)
De Cecco Acini De Pepe
I started out with the butter melting on the bottom of the soup pot, then added the carrots, celery, onion, & some parsley. I sauteed that for a bit, then dumped in the 3 weird juice boxes of chicken broth/stock over top of that and brought it to a boil. I reduced the heat a bit, and added the chicken and meatballs. I let it get back to a boil and added some of the shredded Parmesan & Parmesan/Romano shake cheese to the broth. I let that simmer for a bit and eventually added -ish more cups of water and 2 chicken bullion cubes. (Maybe beef bullion would have been cool here?) Once that boiled again, I added the pasta & spinach & boiled for another 9 minutes. It was tasty. I burned my tongue. Let it cool. Be patient.
Spices…
Season All
Paprika
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Crushed Black Pepper
Sea salt
White Pepper
Crushed Red Pepper
Italian Seasoning
Parsley Flakes
When I refer to seasonings or spices, it could have been any combination of these. I just grab & shake whenever.
Please, let me know if you tried your own inspired by this one. Let me know if you do your own a totally different way. Let me know what I did right, or let me know what I did “wrong.” Thanks for reading!
World (and Lunar) Domination 