Broccoli and Stilton Soup

January. The garden is bare and the kitchen window is fogged. There's a head of broccoli on the counter and a wedge of Stilton wrapped in paper in the fridge, left over from Christmas or bought on Saturday because it looked right. This is the soup that brings them together.

The broccoli does the work. Good broccoli, the dense, dark sort with tight florets and a thick stalk you can peel and use, has a green, peppery depth that most people never find because they boil it into submission. Here it gets simmered gently in stock and blended until smooth. Then the Stilton goes in. Not too much. Enough to make the soup savoury and rich, with that particular blue-cheese warmth that settles into you on a cold evening. You don't need cream. The cheese does everything cream would do and more, because it brings flavour with it.

I make this when the weather is honest about being winter and I want something that fills the kitchen with a smell that says someone is paying attention. A recipe is a conversation, not a contract. Start here and adjust to your own taste: more cheese if you like it bold, less if you want the broccoli to lead. Your kitchen, your rules.

I wrote it down in the notebook years ago. Just three words: broccoli, Stilton, Wednesday. It said enough.