4 tablespoons margarine
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1 or 2 carrots — thinly sliced
1 cup water
1/4 cup rice
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 heads broccoli (about a pound)
1 can low-fat cream of broccoli soup
3 cups 2% low-fat milk
paprika — for garnish

Sauté onions, carrot slices and celery in margarine until tender. Stir in water,
rice, pepper, and cream of broccoli soup. Stir until smooth. Cover and cook over
low to medium heat for 15 minutes. Cut off broccoli stems and slice into very
thin pieces – the size of a match stick. Separate tops into florets and steam
broccoli until tender. Save a few tops for garnish. Stir broccoli into soup and
cook until everything is tender and hot. Now you have a choice. You can place a
whole batch of soup into your blender, add the milk and blend until smooth. Or,
you can put just half the soup in your blender – add the milk and still have
some whole pieces of veggies to eat or you can just add the milk and leave all
the pieces of veggies alone and enjoy the soup like it is. Anyway, you want to
reheat the soup but do not boil. Garnish bowls of soup with paprika and broccoli
florets. NOTES : you can leave the cream of broccoli soup out, if you wish, but
it does add a little more body and a few more interesting tastes to the dish. Serves 8