Broccoli and Cheddar Soup

I've been wanting to make this soup for a while now because it's one of my husband's favorites, and I love it too! It was snowy here over the weekend so I put off grocery shopping, but I had all of the ingredients for this on hand so it worked out well! I served the soup with some croutons and freshly baked sourdough bread. The only complaint I had with this recipe is that I felt it wasn't quite cheesy enough even though I think I used more cheese than the recipe called for, and I used extra sharp cheddar! Besides that, the soup was great and the consistency was perfect. I felt a little weird that it didn't call for a roux but it worked out great. This was a perfect meal for a snowy winter's night.

Ingredients
Adapted from www.allrecipes.com

1/4 cup butter
1 onion, cut into medium dice
1/2 small shallot, minced (I added the shallot to the original recipe)
2 teaspoons garlic powder (I used 3 freshly minced garlic cloves and omitted garlic powder)
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 (16 ounce) package frozen chopped broccoli
1 quart chicken broth
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole or 2% milk (I used skim)
salt to taste
8 ounces shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (I used extra sharp)


Directions

1. Melt butter over medium heat in a stockpot. Cook onion and shallot in butter until softened. Add garlic and pepper; cook for 1 minute then stir in broccoli, and stir in chicken broth. Bring to a boil and simmer until broccoli is tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile whisk flour into milk until dissolved. Stir into soup stirring frequently until thickened. Reduce heat, and stir in cheese until melted and heated through.
3. Season with salt to taste.