Broccoli and Potato Soup

My spouse and collaborator loves broccoli stems, the thicker the better, and he loves them best boiled, served still lukewarm and generously doused in olive oil. The florets on the other hand he considers an accident of nature, and he refuses to touch them. I had bought magnificent broccoli one day whose stems I had made, as I have just described, for lunch. But I hated to throw away the florets—they were so fresh, the buds very tightly clustered and their color a deep blue-green. So I acte