I’ve had this one in my back pocket for a long time now, and frankly, I have my usual story about being incredibly busy in life. However, I’ve also been waiting for colder months. A very dear friend of The Onyx Plate sent in this recipe back in June, and I couldn’t wait for it to get a little colder to share it. It’s finally cooler, and I’m finally sharing your recipe, Kelli! Thank you so much for your patience, and I love the story attached. It’s all about improvising and making a dish your own! You are one cool foodie in my book! :)
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Take it away, Kelli!
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About a month ago, I bought this massive amount of live crawfish and did a crawfish boil just for my family. My extended family all seemed to be busy and couldn’t make it so it ended up just being my mom, my two kids, and me, so there were plenty of leftovers. I knew they would never get eaten before they went bad and that it would be blasphemous to allow such a delicious crustacean to go to waste, so I froze them.
Thursday evening, I decided to thaw some out for dinner but I couldn’t decide how I wanted to make them. I threw suggestions at my 6-year-old daughter and she got excited about the soup suggestion. She just adores soup, you see. So, I naturally headed over to Pinterest.
First, I looked through my soup board and found a Crawfish and Corn Soup recipe but I didn’t have everything for it. I left it open for reference but went back to the main Pinterest page and typed in “crawfish soup.” I found many recipes for Crawfish and Corn Soup. I looked at a couple more of them and they were all quite similar but a few had different ingredients. Either way you sliced it, I didn’t have all the ingredients. So I kept looking. Then, out of nowhere, there’s this different crawfish soup called Crawfish Broccoli Cheese Soup. Broccoli Cheese soup is one of my favorites and adding crawfish just sounded like heaven. Unfortunately, I didn’t have all the ingredients.
I refused to go to the store so I improvised. I sort of combined the two recipes and added my own flair.
First, since my crawfish were already cooked and frozen, I thawed them out and had to shell them. I have a raw spot on 
my thumb where shelling that many crawfish ripped skin off. I would recommend purchasing live ones and boiling them in Swampfire, but only if you like yours a little spicy. If you can’t get or don’t have swampfire, crab boil will work. I steamed broccoli and chopped it up, reheated leftover corn, then gathered these things around my soup pot.
First, I put in a can of broccoli cheddar soup with a can of milk. Then, in went a can of cream of asparagus soup with a can of milk. (I know some people don’t use condensed soup and I’m sure this soup would be better with homemade broccoli cheese and cream of asparagus soup but I didn’t have the ingredients for those so canned it was!) I added another cup of milk and whisked it. Then I dumped in the crawfish, corn, and broccoli and turned on the stove. After that, I had no idea what I was going to put in it but I knew it needed something else.
While the stove was warming up and I stirred the ingredients into the soup base, inspiration struck. I wanted this to be oh-so-creamy and cheesy so, I had my little helper (my daughter) go get a block of cream cheese from the refrigerator. After cutting that up, I put each little piece in and pushed them down to the bottom to help them melt. I threw in some spices and some shredded cheese (because, let’s face it, what’s a cheesy soup without cheese stringing cheese?) When I was throwing in the spices, I realized I had forgotten to sauté the onions so I just threw in some onion powder. I let it simmer for a few minutes then served it. As an afterthought, it would be good with some sliced carrots in it, as well.
My mom added salt and pepper to hers. My kids and I decided it needed a little shredded cheese on top. My son doesn’t usually care for soup but he ate two bowls, my daughter had her usual amount, and my mother ate 3 bowls and wanted a fourth but her stomach was exploding so she stopped. My son thanked everyone who had taken part in the production of the soup because it was so good. I win!
Crawfish Soup
Ingredients:
- 1 lb of cooked crawfish tails, shelled (add more if you want)
- 16 oz of broccoli florets, steamed and roughly chopped
- 4-5 cups of warm buttered yellow corn
- 1 can of condensed broccoli cheese soup
- 1 can of condensed cream of asparagus soup
- 2 cans of milk + 1-2 cup(s) of milk
- 8 oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese, cubed
- 2-3 cups of fiesta blend shredded cheese
- 1 yellow onion, sautéed (or onion powder, to taste)
- Salt, to taste
- Pepper, to taste
- Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning, to taste
- Fiesta blend shredded cheese, to taste
Directions:
1. Clean your live crawfish, boil them in swampfire (or crab boil if you want it less spicy). Then shell them once they’ve cooled.
2. Steam the broccoli then roughly chop it.
3. Heat your corn with butter.
4. Get a soup pot, put in the can of broccoli cheese soup and a can of milk.
5. Add the cream of asparagus soup and a can of milk.
6. Measure a cup or two of milk, add it, and whisk.
7. Add the crawfish, broccoli, and corn and stir.
8. Turn the eye on to high and let the soup warm up a bit.
9. Add the cubed cream cheese and stir.
10. Lower the temperature to medium-low and push the bits of cheese to the bottom.
11. Stir frequently.
12. Add shredded cheese and stir.
13. Add spices (and onion if you went that route) and stir.
14. Reduce heat and cover to simmer for 5-10 minutes.
Serve with your favorite warm bread. Enjoy!
The Onyx Plate 