If you can stir, you can make white sauce, honest

Betty Eberly of Milwaukee, Wis., was desperate after she made the broccoli-cheese soup from our Desperation Dinners cookbook.

"It is very tasty and fast, but the cheese clumped the broccoli and onions together," she wrote to us in an e-mail. "Is there a way I can get a smooth consistency short of melting the cheese into a white sauce?"

In trying to avoid making a white sauce — a step that many cooks shy away from — we simply stirred the cheese into our broccoli soup just before serving. And while it doesn't affect the taste, the cheese sometimes does clump. So we decided to take another look at our soup.

Today's recipe for Creamy Broccoli-Cheese Soup is an easy redo of the original PDQ Broccoli Soup in our book. It has exactly the same wonderful flavors, and when we say easy, we really mean it. This soup goes together in 20 minutes, and the cheese doesn't clump. However, this soup does require making a white sauce. (Sorry, but that's the only way to get a smooth, cheese-based soup.)

If we hadn't mentioned it, you'd probably never know some cooks think this is difficult. Because it's not. If you can stir, you can make white sauce. We promise!

Menu suggestion: Creamy Broccoli-Cheese Soup

Tossed salad

Crusty rolls

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CREAMY BROCCOLI-CHEESE SOUP

Start to finish: 20 minutes

Cook's notes: Frozen broccoli pieces are sometimes called broccoli cuts. Do not use fat-free sour cream because it can separate.

2 cups frozen broccoli pieces, (see Cook's notes)

1 (10-ounce) box frozen chopped broccoli

3 tablespoons butter

1 large onion (for about 1 cup chopped)

1 cup reduced-fat or whole milk

1 cup pre-shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup grated or shredded Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans fat-free chicken broth

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon

1/2 cup light sour cream (see Cook's notes)

Salt and black pepper to taste