I love Broccoli Cheddar Soup (and soup season in general). It’s such a classic soup and it reminds me of childhood. I remember when I was in junior high going to Panera Bread for a quick dinner after tennis practice and the broccoli cheddar soup (in a bread bowl) always hit the spot!
Our broccoli cheddar soup recipe is simple and can be made in just 30 minutes. It’s super flavorful and has the perfect balance of a salty, cheesy soup base with loads of perfectly cooked broccoli goodness!
How to Make Our Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Ingredients
- Place large pot over medium heat and melt butter. Add onion and sweat, about 5 minutes.
- Add flour to butter and onion mixture.Stir together and cook for about 2 minutes. This will remove the raw flour flavor.
- Stir in chicken stock and season generously with salt and pepper. You want to make sure that no flour lumps are left after adding the stock.
- Add celery and broccoli.
- Stir together and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Let simmer until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.
- Stir in milk and continue to simmer until soup is thick enough to just coat the back of a wooden spoon, 2 to 3 minutes. The soup should still have a thinner, ‘soupy’ texture.
- Remove pot from heat and stir in cheddar in small handfuls, waiting until cheese melts to add more cheese. Adding the cheese slowly will help to create a smooth soup in the end.
- Continue to add more cheese to the soup until the soup has thickened and has a smooth velvety texture. Season with salt and pepper and top with more cheddar. Serve.
Tools You Will Need
Tips to Make the BEST Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Our broccoli cheddar soup recipe is very easy to make but there are a couple important factors to make it successfully.
- Make sure you’re grating your own cheese and not using pre-shredded cheese! Pre-shredded cheeses have anti-caking agents in them for preservation and causes the end product to be gritty!
- It’s important to remember that low and slow for adding the cheese is key. Remove the pot from the heat and add the cheese in small handfuls. Removing the pot from the heat will ensure your soup doesn’t separate, while still maintaining enough heat to melt the cheese.
- Also make sure the added shredded cheese fully incorporates and melts into the soup before adding more. This will guarantee the soup stays creamy and smooth. If the cheese is added too quickly you run the risk of your soup becoming gritty.
Does this Taste Just Like the Version at Panera Bread?
Yes and no! Our version is VERY similar to the one they serve at Panera, but we omitted the carrots. Why? Because we really wanted the focus to be on the broccoli and the cheddar…that’s why it’s called broccoli cheddar soup! It’s such a delicious and classic combination of flavors we didn’t want anything “fighting” the flavors if that makes sense.
If you want carrots in your soup, no problem! Just add 1 peeled and diced carrot to the onion and celery (making a mirepoix) OR peel and cut 1 carrot into julienne strips and add them to your soup when you add the broccoli!
Make Ahead Instructions for Our Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Make Ahead
Our soup can be made up to 3 days ahead of time, stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Reheating Leftovers
To reheat, pour soup into a pot and place over medium-low to low heat. Stir soup occasionally to ensure it heats back up evenly. It’s important that the soup comes back up to temperature slowly so that it stays thick, creamy and smooth. Reheating the soup too quickly can make the soup gritty and lose its body.
If you find that your soup still gets too thin after its been heated scoop 1/2 cup of the warm soup into a small bowl and whisk together with 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch until smooth. Pour mixture back into the pot, stir together and simmer until soup slightly thickens.
Can I Freeze This Soup?
We really don’t recommend freezing this recipe because the consistency will be very thin and the texture will be off (gritty) once it’s thawed and heated back up. The cornstarch slurry trick also doesn’t work nearly as well for when the soup has been frozen.
Best Way to Serve Our Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Our favorite way to serve this soup is to ladle it into a crusty, sourdough bread bowl! The last bits of the soup absorb into the inner crust of the bowl and it’s so satisfying to tear away pieces of the soup soaked bread bowl and scarf them down as you finish up the soup.
More Delicious Soup Recipes You Will Love
Easy Broccoli Cheddar Soup
INGREDIENTS
soup
- 5 tbsp unsalted butter
- ½ onion chopped
- ⅓ cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups unsalted chicken stock
- 1 celery stalk finely diced
- 2½ cup broccoli chopped into bite sized pieces
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2 cups shredded cheddar
- salt and pepper to taste
garnish
- 1 cup shredded cheddar
INSTRUCTIONS
- Place large pot over medium heat and melt butter. Add onion and sweat, about 5 minutes.
- Whisk in flour and cook for about 2 minutes.
- Stir in chicken stock and season generously with salt and pepper.
- Stir in celery and broccoli and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Let simmer until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.
- Stir in milk and continue to simmer until soup is thick enough to just coat the back of a wooden spoon, 2 to 3 minutes. (soup should still have a 'soupy' texture)
- Remove pot from heat and stir in cheddar in small handfuls, waiting until cheese melts to add more cheese.
- Season with salt and pepper and top with more cheddar. Serve.
NOTES
- It’s important to remember that low and slow for adding the cheese is key. Remove the pot from the heat and add the cheese in small handfuls. Removing the pot from the heat will ensure your soup doesn’t separate, while still maintaining enough heat to melt the cheese.
- Also make sure the added shredded cheese fully incorporates and melts into the soup before adding more. This will guarantee the soup stays creamy and smooth. If the cheese is added too quickly you run the risk of your soup becoming gritty.
Did you make this recipe? We want to see!
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looks good
I made this soup but swapped half the milk with heavy cream and added 2 cups smoked turkey breast. A lovely way to use holiday leftovers.
I thickened the leftover soup with corn starch and stuffed it into crepes.
An amazingly delicious and versatile recipe! Thank you for sharing
So delicious. I have a question, the calories, is that per serving or the whole thing?
Per serving
I used up some things from my fridge in this and it was amazing!
I used my holiday hash and the ends of three different cheese blocks. Gouda, cheddar and mimmolette. It was amazingly delicious!
So easy and so delicious. I cheated and did the Sargento sharp cheddar shredded and it was still amazing. Thank you.
Just made this for lunch 10/10 with lots of cracked black pepper on top! 🤩
Beautiful recipe, lovely balance of flavors, well written covering typical faux-pas most cooks make. I live at a very high elevation and had to substitute salted butter, low fat milk for the recipe and found 1/4 cup more cheddar makes the perfect consistency with those changes. I used British crumbly white cheddar as that is what my husband bought but grated it on the finest setting so the crumbles would not create lumps in this soup. I used conventional orange, sharp cheddar as the topping/ garnish for that final punch. My hat is off to Jenny as she is right kind of picky as a cook. I have also made her lovely corn chowder. If I could give you six stars I would!
Could I make this the night before and then reheat in a crockpot on low for a work potluck?
Need some advice. The recipe calls for 480g of Chicken Stock and 610g of Milk. But both of those things are usually measured in Liters or Milliliters.
Is it supposed to be 480ml and 610ml? Or is it actually grams?
Super easy. I substituted the celery for carrots and also added more chicken stock because I found my batch to be too thick at that point in the recipe. I then used unsweetened almond milk 2 more cups of chicken stock, and followed the recipe to the end and it was PERFECTION!
One of my favourite winter warmers, amazing with some fresh bread
Why add salt to when there is so much in the chicken stock and other processed foods?
There’s none in the chicken stock. We always use unsalted chicken stock to have more control over the salt content. And if you haven’t made the recipe, then why question a method when you haven’t tasted the results?
Broccoli soup was good!!
I made this yummy soup tonight with 1 cup celery and carrots chopped along with 2 cups whole milk and 3 cups of homemade vegetable broth. Added 3 cups cheddar cheese plus more for garnish. Also added 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard in end after melting cheese. May still add cornstarch to thicken soup tomorrow, if need be. Thank you for this recipe. Will be making again soon with potatoes added this time.
We baked some Yukon potatoes in the over. Cut them into large cubes and poured this delicious soup right on top. Yummy! Great recipe! P.S. Good cheese is critical.
Definitely use good quality cheese. I used Balderson Old Cheddar. Delicious!
Delicious 😋 I picked up a big bag of broccoli off the clearance rack at Walmart so I had a lot of broccoli. I doubled the stock and the broccoli, and also ran it through the food processor. My family all went back for seconds!
I am currently making this for the third time in 3 weeks. I can’t even keep it in house. My son & daughter in law, friends, my mom all have taken a container of it. I am secretly making it today so I can have it for lunches because it never lasts 24 hours here. I end up winging the measurements towards the end because I make ALOT! How this recipe is for 6 servings, IDK lol. I change the servings to 24 but think some of the ingredients would be too much. Like over a cup of flour….It always turns out excellent! I contribute some of that to my using McCall’s or Kerrygold cheddar cheese. It’s all about the cheese folks! Better cheddar, better flavor. Thank you! This is def a keeper!
I make this in batches and it freezes nicely.. Just reheat slowly. Perfect! Easy meal for the family on a busy week night
2nd time making your recipe in just.under a week and my husband has requested that any time I chose to make a broccoli cheddar soup flto save this recipe and make it just like this every time. 😋Two thumbs up!!👍👍
This was a very easy! It was very tasty and ate well with some leftover focaccia we had.
can you make this in the slow cooker?
Delish!