Broccoli Cheddar Soup

This Broccoli Cheddar Soup recipe is rich and creamy – the perfect comfort food! It’s a restaurant-quality broccoli cheese soup that’s easy to make in about 30 minutes – even for beginners!

 

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

If we had to choose one soup out of ALL the amazingly delicious soups we’ve shared with you here on The Busy Baker, this Broccoli Cheddar Soup would be our favourite. We love it SO much, in fact, that it’s the soup that was served at our wedding reception, almost 20 years ago!

It’s creamy, it’s comforting – it’s like a hug in a bowl – and it’s packed with fresh broccoli and sharp cheddar cheese. It’s easy to make, and it’s unbelievably delicious. Trust us on this one, try it once and you’ll find yourself making it again and again!

Broccoli Cheddar Soup is a super popular, classic comfort food soup that is known for its richness, its creamy texture, and its strong broccoli flavour. It’s one of the popular soups available at the American chain restaurant, Panera, and it’s become so famous that it’s a commonly recreated dish in home kitchens everywhere.

Broccoli cheese soup is flavoured with simple spices and thickened with a mixture of butter and flour (known as a roux). It’s made with chicken stock or broth, milk, and half and half cream for extra richness. Fresh broccoli and grated carrots add the perfect chunky texture and the cheddar cheese adds a ton of sharp, cheesy flavour. It’s truly a simple soup to make at home!

There are SO many reasons we LOVE this broccoli cheese soup recipe. Here are just a few:

1. It’s everybody’s FAVOURITE. Our version tastes just like Panera’s broccoli cheddar soup, so it’s a great soup to make when company comes over – everybody loves it!
2. It’s COMFORTING. This soup is the epitome of comfort food. It’s creamy and delicious and it’s perfect to enjoy on a cold day.
3. It’s VERSATILE. This soup can be enjoyed as a starter, a light lunch, or a hearty dinner with crusty bread or some grilled cheese sandwiches.
4. KIDS love it. This soup is the perfect way to get kids to eat their green veggies!
5. It’s great for MEAL PREP. We love making a batch of this soup at the beginning of the week
6. It calls for FRESH VEGGIES. We’re always looking for new ways to enjoy our veggies, and this soup is packed with them!

This Broccoli Cheddar Soup recipe goes well with so many other dishes. Here’s a few things we like to serve it with!

1. This Olive Garden Salad and a loaf of crusty No Knead Bread
2. A loaf of Garlic Bread
3. A bowl of Easy Caesar Salad
4. A Chicken Salad Sandwich or wrap
5. A batch of Homemade Biscuits
6. A Homemade Rotisserie Chicken and some Air Fryer Roasted Potatoes

If you want to make restaurant-quality broccoli cheddar soup, be sure to follow all our pro tips and tricks!

The end result of this soup will be SO much better if you use fresh chopped broccoli and freshly grated carrots. Steer clear of frozen or pre cut veggies – fresh vegetables always give the best flavour and texture.

Pre-shredded cheese you can buy at the grocery store often contains anti-caking agents that can make your soup grainy and prevent the cheese from melting properly into the soup. Buy a block of high-quality sharp cheddar and grate it yourself so it melts into the soup smoothly.

This soup has the best texture when the broccoli florets are chopped nice and small. They fit perfectly on a soup spoon at this size, and they cook quickly. Aim for pieces about 1/2 inch in size.

Making soups with cream or other dairy is slightly more complicated than broth-based soups as the dairy can curdle or cause the soup to separate. Be sure to stay close as the soup cooks, especially after adding the veggies, so you can stir regularly.

Keep the soup at a gentle simmer once you add the dairy and cheese. Boiling the soup too hard can cause the soup to curdle because of the milk and cream.

If the soup is separating it’s probably because the dairy is curdling. This can happen because the soup boiled too hard after the dairy was added. To prevent this, be sure to keep the heat to medium-low or low after you add the milk and cream.

If the soup seems lumpy it’s probably because the flour didn’t incorporate properly into the stock. Be sure to whisk the stock in slowly so the mixture doesn’t form lumps. Be sure all the lumps of flour are incorporated before adding the dairy to the soup.

If your broccoli cooks too long it will lose its bright green colour. Be sure to cook the broccoli in the soup only until it’s tender and still bright green in colour.

If the soup seems too thick, thin it out with a little bit more chicken stock until you reach the desired consistency. If it’s too thin or watery, you likely mis-measured the liquid. In this case, dissolve a little bit of cornstarch (1 teaspoon) in a tablespoon or two of water and add it to the soup. As it cooks, the soup will thicken.

Remove the soup from the heat before you add the cheese but be sure it’s still hot. The heat from the soup will melt the cheese as you stir constantly until melted.

Here at The Busy Baker we have shared so many of our favourite mealtime tips, tricks and secrets with you over the years. If you haven’t already signed up, we offer a FREE email course where we share our BEST weeknight meal tips, tricks and recipes to help you feed your hungry family without losing your sanity. Sign up for our FREE course below:

And if you’ve already taken the course, we offer 11 weeks of family meal plans for sale in The Busy Baker shop, complete with a week’s worth of meals planned for you, a grocery list ready to go, all our best mealtime tips and tricks, and an optional meal prep guide to help you get ahead of the dinnertime game. We hope you’ll check them out!!

Here’s a list of the basic kitchen equipment you’ll need to make this broccoli cheddar soup recipe (paid links):

• Grater
• chopping board
• large knife
• large pot with lid or a dutch oven pot
• measuring cups and spoons
• liquid measuring cups
• wooden cooking utensil
• Whisk
• Soup Ladle

Here’s a list of the ingredients you’ll need to make this broccoli cheese soup recipe (paid links):

• 1 ​tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper (you can also use black pepper)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder (or use 2 cloves garlic)
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups chicken stock or chicken broth
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups half and half cream
• 4 cups small broccoli florets about 1 medium head of broccoli
• 1 cup grated carrot about 1-2 carrots
• 1 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese plus more for garnish

Want to make this broccoli cheddar soup recipe your own? Here are some creative ways you can adapt it to your tastes and preferences:

1. Add a Potato. Before adding the dairy, add some chopped potatoes and let it cook in the stock until almost cooked tender. Follow the rest of the recipe as directed. This will turn it into a broccoli cheese potato soup that’s extra hearty and filling.
2. Make it Vegan. Substitute the chicken stock with vegetable broth, the dairy with plant-based butter and milk, coconut cream, and use a vegan cheddar cheese.
3. Make it Spicy. Add some chopped jalapeños with the onions and some red pepper flakes for garnish to make the soup extra spicy.
4. Make it Extra Creamy. Substitute the half and half for heavy cream for an extra rich version of this soup.
5. Make it Gluten-Free. For a gluten-free option, use gluten-free flour instead of all purpose.
6. Puree It. For an extra smooth soup, blend it with an immersion blender after the broccoli is cooked and before adding the cheese.
7. Add Extra Veggies. Chop some extra vegetables like red pepper, cauliflower, or mushrooms and add them in to the soup for some extra fibre.
8. Add Some Extra Protein. Add some cooked, diced chicken or even ham to turn the soup into a more filling, hearty meal.

We hope you love this Broccoli Cheddar Soup recipe as much as we do! Let us know in the comments below, what would you serve with this soup? We’d love to know!

• Avgolemono Soup
• Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup
• Meatball Soup
• Roasted Vegetable Soup
• Minestrone Soup
• Carrot Ginger Soup
• Vegetable Soup
• Lasagna Soup
• Homemade Mushroom Soup
• Easy Homemade Creamy Tomato Soup

Watch the video below to see exactly how we make this recipe. You can find many more deliciously simple recipe videos on our YouTube channel!