I can go out to eat and try broccoli soup in a dozen places, but they’ll never come close to the one my dad makes. I can’t say it’s his OWN recipe. He’s been making it for as long as I can remember, but the trouble is, nobody knows where the mysterious recipe came from.

It was a cold, damp day here Friday — a rarity in southern California — and I felt it was the perfect day for soup, not to mention I had a heaping bag of broccoli that was two days away from the trash as we’re headed to Florida this morning. So I asked Dad for the recipe, thinking he could send me a link, but he didn’t have one. When he got home, my mom had already dictated the recipe to me over the phone, because there was no trail of what book it came from.

So, here it is, Dad’s Broccoli Soup from Who Knows Where:

1qt fresh broccoli heads, packed tight
2/3 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
3 cups warm milk
2 cups chicken broth
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
3 tbl lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbl Worcestshire
1/4 tsp Tabasco, or favorite hot sauce
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

2 cups heavy cream (optional)
3 egg yolks

1. Cook broccoli in a saucepan with butter til soft (this takes a while so be patient). Stir occasionally so you don’t burn the bottom of the pan like I did.
2. Blend in flour, simmer until bubbling. Stir occasionally.
3. Add next eight ingredients (everything to the dotted line above). Stir constantly til thick.
4. Remove from burner and whirl in blender. Add cream if desired.*
5. Strain concoction then put back in saucepan.
6. Stir in remaining cream (we skipped this step).
7. Bring to boil and remove from heat.
8. Beat egg yolks in small bowl. Whisk trace of hot soup in with egg yolks. Pour egg mixture into soup and stir constantly.**
9. Taste for salt and adjust.***

A couple family notes:

*My dad is anti-cream. My mom loves cream. Maybe next time I’ll try adding a little cream, but honestly it’s so rich with the milk it barely needs it.
**I don’t think the eggs are necessary. The egg yolks we used ended up getting cooked and as much as I like eggs, I didn’t like seeing the cooked whites in the soup.
***This soup can easily be on the over-salted side. Add salt with caution.

If you’re looking for some other Thanksgiving day fare, enjoy an old post from Mona’s Apple. It has some of my family’s tried and true Thanksgiving Day grub.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!