Broccoli Cheddar Soup Recipe
Published November 16, 2022. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
This easy-to-make Broccoli Cheddar Soup Recipe is jam-packed with flavor and is the perfect soup to serve to family and friends during the fall and winter months. You will be blown away at how tasty and simple to prepare this is.
We are a soup family and make and eat it at least 2 times a week during the winter. If you or your family are similar, you must try my Avgolemono or Lentil Soup.
Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Broccoli Cheddar soup is a simple broth-based soup with simmered vegetables, and most importantly, broccoli is pureed, creamed, and finished with cheese. This features few ingredients and can be made relatively quickly, making it a great soup. It’s hearty enough to be served as a main entree and elegant enough to serve as a course to a meal.
This soup is great if you’re trying to get rid of an abundance of broccoli, and not-too-mention, an amazing way to get kids to eat vegetables, like my daughter. She even claims this Broccoli cheddar soup recipe is better than Panera Bread. I will take it.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Fat – I use unsalted butter. However, you can use your favorite oil or even pork lard.
- Onion – A combination of onions, leeks, and garlic is used. You can use yellow, white, or sweet onions.
- Broccoli – Fresh broccoli is best to use. However, you can use frozen.
- Flour – All-purpose flour is needed to make a roux.
- Stock – You can use chicken stock or vegetable stock in this broccoli cheddar soup.
- Cream – Heavy whipping cream is used in my recipe. You can use whole milk or half and half.
- Cheese – Shredded sharp orange cheddar is what you will need.
- Seasonings – I use sea salt, pepper, Worcestershire, and Tabasco sauce to season the soup.
How to Make Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Add the butter to a large pot over medium heat. Once melted, add in the onions, garlic, and leeks and cook until lightly browned and translucent, which takes about 8 to 10 minutes while frequently stirring.
Next, stir in the flour until combined in to make a roux.
Add in the broccoli and chicken stock, boil, and cook the broccoli until al dente or slightly crunchy.
Using a hand blender, pulse the soup until it becomes slightly chunky or until the desired chunkiness or smoothness is achieved. After that, ensure the soup is thick. If not, you may need to make a separate roux or slurry and whisk it in.
Pour in the heavy cream and stir in to combine.
Mix in the cheddar cheese until combined and melted.
FInally, finish by seasoning with sea salt, pepper, Worcestershire, and Tabasco sauce.
Serve with extra shredded cheese.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Make-Ahead: You can make this soup up to 1 day ahead of time. When you are ready to serve, reheat it on the stovetop in a pot.
How to Store: Cover and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. This will freeze well and be covered for up to 6 months. Thaw the soup in the refrigerator for 1 day until it is thawed before reheating.
How to Reheat: Add the desired amount of broccoli cheddar soup to a pot and heat up over low heat until it is hot. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper and add a ¼ cup of chicken stock if it is too thick and needs to be thinned out.
Chef Notes + Tips
- Try adding aged white or yellow cheddar for a more intense cheese flavor.
- If you do not have a hand immersion blender, add half the soup to a blender and pulse it a few times on high speed to help smooth out some of the soup but still have some chunkiness.
- This soup serves many people, so feel free to cut it in half.
More Soup Recipes
- Zuppa Toscana Recipe
- Chicken Dumpling Soup
- French Onion Soup
- Mulligatawny Soup
- New England Clam Chowder
Video
Broccoli Cheddar Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1 peeled and small diced yellow onion
- 6 finely minced cloves of garlic
- 3 thinly sliced leeks, rinsed
- 1 cup of all-purpose flour
- 6 heads of trimmed fresh broccoli
- 16 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups of heavy whipping cream
- 2 pounds of shredded cheddar cheese
- sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
- Worcestershire and Tabasco sauce to taste
Instructions
- Add the butter to a large pot over medium heat. Once melted, add in the onions, garlic, and leeks and cook until lightly browned and translucent, which takes about 8 to 10 minutes while frequently stirring.
- Next, stir in the flour until combined in to make a roux.
- Add in the broccoli and chicken stock and bring to a boil and cook the broccoli just until al dente, or slightly crunchy.
- Using a hand blender pulse the soup until it becomes slightly chunky or until the desired chunkiness or smoothness is achieved.
- At this point ensure the soup is thick. If it’s not, you may need to make a separate roux or slurry and whisk it in.
- Pour in the heavy cream and stir in in to combine over low heat.
- Mix in the cheddar cheese until combined and melted in.
- Finish by seasoning with sea salt, pepper, Worcestershire, and Tabasco sauce.
- Serve with extra shredded cheese.
You make recipes look Easy. People in my restaurant want vegetables 🥦 soup .
Just a touch of humor. We loved this soup! There is just my husband and me now, so I started off by cutting the recipe in half. We ate for two nights, but had so much still left over that we froze it. A couple of weeks later we heated it up again and it fed us for two more nights. That’s half recipe, four meals for the two of us.
I watched this yesterday. I used what I had on hand: leeks, garlic, potato, carrot, cabbage and milk. I added s& p, celery salt, cayenne, nutmeg and cheese. It was wonderful. Thanks for the inspiration.
De-lish! Not having an immersion blender, I used a potato masher which worked well. The addition of the worcestershire sauce is the secret ingredient. So Good!
Can this soup be frozen?
Just my husband & I retired now.
He lives the Panera broccoli cheddar.
Thanks
Renee
yes
This won my whole family over! So delicious!!
lol glad you all are digging it my friend!
This is one of our favorite soups. So hearty!
My family’s favorite soup recipe. Turns out so good every time!
Broccoli-cheese is one of my all-time favorites and I love the addition of the leek, so much flavor!
how can it be called “roasted” when the broccoli is not roasted at all??
We call that pan roasted in the culinary world 🙂