Broccoli Cheese Soup

I'd been looking for a broccoli cheese soup that didn't involve the ingredient "cheese food"... a.k.a Velveeta. It's more difficult than you might think! I finally found this recipe from the Six Sisters website and it uses actual, REAL cheese, from real cows! YAY! Initially I was a little skeptical about the nutmeg but it does turn out tasting great. I didn't change anything with this recipe except for I doubled it (the amounts listed below are for the doubled version) for my family of 6 which was a good call on my part. There were some leftovers but not much. 

Ingredients

8 TB butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 cups half and half
2 cups milk**
6 cups chicken stock or broth
3 bay leaves
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
6-8 cups broccoli florets (about 1 head)
2 large carrot, diced
5 cups grated sharp white and/or yellow cheddar cheese plus more for garnish

Directions

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the flour and cook until golden, 3 to 4 minutes, then gradually whisk in the half-and-half and milk until smooth. Add the chicken broth, bay leaves and nutmeg, then season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, uncovered, until thickened, about 20minutes.

Add the broccoli florets and carrot to the broth mixture and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes.
 Discard the bay leaves.

Add the cheese to the soup and whisk over medium heat until melted.

**Use all milk or all half and half depending on how rich and creamy you want it.  Just be careful if you use all low fat milk that the mixture doesn’t curdle.  The lower the fat content is the easier it is to curdle.