This quick and easy Broccoli Cheese Soup uses fresh or frozen broccoli and cheddar, Velveeta, or other cheeses. Make it a copycat of Panera's Broccoli Cheese Soup.
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Broccoli cheese shop is the perfect comfort food for a cold day. Packed with cheddar, Velveeta, or the cheeses of your choice with tender broccoli.
This recipe only uses one pot, either fresh or frozen broccoli that is cooked in the soup. No cream or unnecessary fat is added.
With easy step-by-step photo instructions, it's ready in 30 minutes or a bit more. And can be modified for a low-carb or keto diet.
Based on combining Pioneer Woman with an Allrecipes recipe. It is easy to double for leftovers since it will store and freeze well. Or make a Panera variation that's better than the original and only costs a fraction of Panera or the deli.
A variation of this recipe is Crock Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup. Other classic soups are Chicken Noodle Soup, Vegetable Beef Soup, or Tomato Basil Soup. This recipe is part of our Our Best Soups.
👨🍳How to Make Broccoli Cheese Soup
- Prepare fresh or frozen broccoli by trimming the broccoli florets into bite-size chunks.
- Saute onion in butter in a heavy soup pot or Dutch oven. Add the garlic near the end of cooking.
- Sprinkle in flour and make a rour.
- Slowly add chicken or vegetable broth and milk while stirring to thicken.
- When thickened, add the broccoli. Decrease to simmer and cover.
- Cook until the broccoli is tender—about 20 to 25 minutes.
- Puree with an immersion blender or potato masher if you want that texture.
- Add in cheese, and simmer for 5 more minutes until cheese is melted.
🥦Ingredients
Broccoli
I suggest fresh broccoli for this soup, but frozen broccoli can be used. One large head will make about 3 cups of broccoli florets. A 12 oz. bag of frozen broccoli will also be about 3 cups of florets.
Previously cooked leftover broccoli can be used. It can be added after thickening along with the cheese if not using something like carrots that need to be cooked. It will be hot when the cheese is melted and ready to serve.
The size of the florets should be relatively small to fit easily in a spoon. Both fresh and frozen broccoli may need to be cut into smaller chunks. Both will cook in the soup.
Cheese
Sharp cheddar cheese is the most common cheese for this soup. I like to use Velveeta for part of the cheese for the texture and taste. But select the cheeses you like.
Shredded cheese has some anti-clumping coating and is preferred to solid cheese—I use the brand name shredded cheese.
Velveeta is made for melting and will do well in this soup and make it creamier than all cheddar. So it is one of the best cheese that can be added.
If your cheese separates or clumps, it is your cheese, not the recipe. Usually, this will be generic poor-quality cheese or outdated cheese. But it rarely happens since we add it at the end of cooking and melt it.
Dairy
Many suggest heavy cream or half&half. I find more than enough milk fat in the cheese—I always use lower-fat milk. The Velveeta also makes the soup creamier. But use the dairy of your choice.
🥣Variations
Copycat Panera's Broccoli Cheese Soup
If you want to copycat Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup, add carrot and celery with the broccoli.
You will need about 1 cup of carrots. Matchstick-cut carrots are available in most produce departments. Or one large or two smaller carrots can be diced, julienned, or shredded.
The second component is one rib of thinly sliced celery.
Bacon or Ham Broccoli Cheese Soup
Everything is better with bacon. This is my wife's obsession. Chop three strips of bacon into ½ inch squares and fry until done. Drain and add along with the cheese.
Diced leftover ham also works well.
Cauliflower Cheese Soup
Several commenters want to use cauliflower to replace broccoli, but cauliflower may take a few minutes more to cook. So use the same volume, and the endpoint of the cauliflower is tender, and you should be fine.
Other Seasoning
Add some flavor with an optional touch of nutmeg or paprika. Add about ¼ teaspoon at the start of simmering if you wish—one or the other, not both.
❓FAQs
A single recipe makes about 7 to 8 cups of soup, and you need some working room in the pot to make the roux and mix.
For a single recipe, a four-quart or larger soup pot or Dutch oven. For the suggested double recipe, use a 6 ½ quart Dutch oven.
There are only 12 grams of carbohydrates per serving, but half of that is from the flour. You can skip thickening with flour and add more cheese or incorporate more broccoli with the blender. There are also low-carb thickeners available.
For gluten-free diets, like for the keto diet, wheat flour should be eliminated but you can substitute half the volume of corn starch if you want.
Usually, chicken broth is used, but vegetable broth is also acceptable. I typically use lower sodium broth and add more salt later to taste.
Stores well in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. But it never lasts more than two days at our house (we eat it.)
It will freeze well in an airtight container like a freezer Ziplock bag for 3-4 months.
Reheat on the stovetop with medium-low heat or in a microwave. Thaw first if frozen.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
These are double-batch pictures. The recipe discussion below is a single batch, and the ingredient list is for a single batch.
Rinse and spoon-size chop one head of fresh broccoli, or use 12 oz of frozen broccoli. Trim any larger florets into spoon size chunks.
Mince a small or ½ of a medium onion. Over medium-high heat, melt 4 tablespoons of butter. Add onion and saute until clearing—about 3 minutes. Add 1 clove of minced garlic and cook one more minute.
Decrease the heat to medium. Add ¼ cup flour and continue to cook and stir continually until browning some—about 3 minutes.
Slowly add two cups of chicken or vegetable broth, and stir to mix in the flour mixture. Add ½ teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of black pepper. Allow to thicken some, then slowly add 2 cups of milk. Bring to a low boil and allow to thicken.
Add broccoli, cover, and turn down the heat to simmer. Simmer until broccoli is tender—about 20 to 25 minutes.
Option: Some people like to puree with an immersion blender through the soup at this point. I only want a little blending, so I suggest a potato masher.
Add 2 cups of cheese of your choice. A mixture of sharp cheddar and Velveeta is suggested. Simmer another 5 minutes and serve.
Recipe
Quick and Easy Broccoli Cheese Soup
Ingredients
- 1 head broccoli large head - or 12 oz bag of frozen broccoli
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 onion - small
- 1 clove garlic
- ¼ cup flour
- 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 2 cups milk
- 2 cups shredded cheese of choice - assume 4 oz. equals 1 cup if not shredded cheese. Sharp cheddar and Velveeta mix is preferred.
For Panara copycat soup-add with broccoli
- 1 cup carrot - matchstick, shredded, or diced
- 1 rib celery
Instructions
- Rinse and spoon-size chop one head of fresh broccoli, or use 12 oz of frozen broccoli. Trim any larger florets into spoon size chunks.
- Mince a small or ½ of a medium onion. Over medium-high heat, melt 4 tablespoons of butter. Add onion and saute until clearing—about 3 minutes. Add 1 clove of minced garlic and cook one more minute.
- Decrease the heat to medium. Add ¼ cup flour and continue to cook and stir continually until browning some—about 3 minutes.
- Slowly add two cups of chicken or vegetable broth, and stir to mix in the flour mixture. Add ½ teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of black pepper. Allow to thicken some, then slowly add 2 cups of milk. Bring to a low boil and allow to thicken.
- Add broccoli, cover, and turn down the heat to simmer. Simmer until broccoli is tender—about 20 to 25 minutes.
- Option: Some people like to puree with an immersion blender through the soup at this point. I only want a little blending, so I suggest a potato masher.
- Add 2 cups of cheese of your choice. A mixture of sharp cheddar and Velveeta is suggested. Simmer another 5 minutes and serve.Quick & Easy
Your Own Private Notes
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- Choose the cheeses you like. I prefer half Velveeta and half shredded sharp cheddar.
- Frozen broccoli works fine but may take a few minutes longer to cook but will eliminate about 10 minutes of prep time for fresh broccoli.
- If you want to copycat Panera, then add 1 cup of matchstick-cut carrots and 1 stalk of thinly sliced celery at the same time as the broccoli.
- Make it Bacon Broccoli Cheese Soup. Everything is better with bacon. Chop 3 strips of bacon into ½ inch squares and fry until done. Drain and add along with the cheese.
- Great as leftovers. Good refrigerated for 3-4 days and frozen for 3 months.
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Editor's note: Originally published December 19, 2015. This has become one of my go-to recipes and is now updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Punam Paul @punampaul.com
Interesting soup easy and quick recipe. I first time tried a broccoli cheese combination. This soup is very delicious.
DrDan
Welcome to the blog.
I do love this soup. Glad it worked well for you.
Dan
Michelle
Made this for dinner. So easy and delicious. Next time will add bacon. Better than Panera's soup. Thank you. Will definitely make this a favorite.
DrDan
Hi Michelle,
Welcome to the blog.
I just had this soup again yesterday. It is a favorite of my wife's. I use bacon if I have it.
Thanks for the note and Happy Holidays.
Dan
Erica Johnson
My husband and I are new empty nesters and I have found cooking for two to be a challenge. I came across this recipe and tried it tonight. It was perfect and just enough left over for lunch tomorrow! Thank you so much for my new favorite soup!
DrDan
Hi Erica,
Welcome to the blog.
This is one of my most favorite recipes. I do it once or twice a month. Usually I double for leftovers and the freezer.
Since you are really "cooking for two", you might want to check out my discussion about recipe size at https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/recipes-not-two-servings/ so you won't be too disappointed that all recipes are not for two servings.
Have a look around and let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Betty Davis
I love this recipe. I put the broccoli stock in my bullet with a little chicken broth then added it in.That made it more rich
JC
This soup is amazing! I didn’t have broth so just used water in it’s place and a couple drops of liquid smoke (I’m vegetarian and was thinking abt the bacon suggestion), then added the carrots and celery. My 11 year old son just had it and said, “this is my second favorite food of all time now even though i wasn’t expecting to like it after the strong smell of onions”, haha! He hasn’t loved any new foods for a couple years now. Our new favorite recipe. Thank you. :)
PS- 6 year old loves it, too. Wow!
Kim
I want to make homemade soup, but I am all’s trying to eat Keto, what can I use instead of cornstarch or flour to thicken the broth?
DrDan
Hi Kim,
Welcome to the blog.
About half the carbs are from the flour. The usual thickening products used in cooking are all basically carbohydrates. Due to all the cheese, this will still be fairly thick even without the flour and you can always add more cheese.
Hope that helps.
Dan
Sarah
Would it be ok to make this on the stove then transfer to a crockpot to keep warm? I’m wanting to take it to a get together with some friends.
DrDan
Hi Sarah,
Welcome to the blog.
It will be a little tricky. You need to keep it about 140 degrees but not higher than 155 or so. If higher, it continues to cook and if lower for 2 hours, you should assume it is not safe. "keep warm" on crock pots is very non-specific.
It does reheat well and just reheating there would be safer. Keep below 40 degrees during transport.
Dan
Judy
So if you were making a double batch in the pictures how many servings is that? Has anyone tried this in the crockpot?
DrDan
Hi Judy,
A single batch is 4 good servings but no seconds for anybody. I did this last weekend for lunch for 4. I made a double. I had to buy that much broccoli and wanted some leftovers. My wife and I had two more good size meals. So truly 8 servings in the double batch.
Crock pot - probably not too good. You need to make the initial roux for thickening and that just can't be done in a crock pot. Since you already have the pan dirty doing the roux and adding the broth and milk to thicken, I see no good role for a crock pot.
Also, this freezes well.
Dan
Katelyn
AMAZING! Instead of milk, I used half and half. I only had 1% milk and I was worried I wouldn’t have the same creamy text and taste. It came out amazing with the half and half sub. I definitely recommend! Will be making this often for my family!
DrDan
Hi Katelyn,
Welcome to the blog.
Glad it worked well for you. I use the milk I have which is almost always fat-free. There is lots of fat in the butter and cheese so it works well. But I will never argue with more cream. It can only make it better.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Shauna Guymon
Oh my heck This is so good and so easy!!! The only thing I did was add a pinch of thyme and about 1/2 a tsp. of brown mustard.
DrDan
Hi Shauna,
Welcome to the blog and sorry for the late reply.
I do love this recipe. But I always love simple things.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Kim
Dr Dan Thank you. This is great soup. Will have to try more later. 😍.
Vickie
I wander if I could use a can of Campbell’s cheddar cheese soup if I have no velveeta cheese
DrDan
I would just use a more cheddar or other cheese. I'm not a fan of the cheese soup in a can but it is up to you if you want to try it.
Dan
Michelle
I found this recipe surfing around on Pinterest,figured it was easy so I tried it. Let me tell ya this is now my go to recipe. It is quick and easy and DELICIOUS! Thanks for a pin win !!!
Rondi
This soup is very, very good. Pretty fast from start to table. I always feel like I am making something so good and nutritous for us when I make this soup. Your recipe is easy to follow. Perfect quantities of ingredients. It also freezes well. I look forward to following more of your recipes.
DrDan
Hi Rondi,
I do love this soup. I have totally lost count of the number of times I have done this. I had another similar soup on the blog and last week I deleted it and redirected all the traffic to this recipe.
Thanks for the note and have a look around the blog. Let me know if you have any questions.
Dan
Rhonda
Love the recipe it's so good. Try with a little cayenne pepper it give it just a little more flavor and heat
DrDan
Hi Rhonda,
I like the cayenne idea.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Sara
Great soup easy and quick to whip up with ingredients you have to use up in your kitchen and fridge. Thanks a bunch it's gonna be dinner for my family and I tonight ❤❤❤
DrDan
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Jean Green
Great soup, I doubled the recipe using broccoli and shallots from my garden
And Half and half with my 1% milk. It was delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
Melissa Morgan
Made this tonight, first time ever making broccoli cheddar soup which I love. Some changes were required. I didn't have chicken or veg broth so I used water w/ some soy sauce. (Advice from the internet) I used fresh broccoli and sharp cheddar. It was simple to follow and came out really good. Next time I will not add 1/2 tsp. salt as it seemed too salty. Could have been the soy sauce. It was a success nevertheless, I will make it again. Thank you for sharing.
DrDan
Hi Melissa,
Yep, probably the soy sauce, it is loaded with sodium.
Glad it worked for you and thanks for the note.
Dan
Marcy
Dr. Dan, this soup is delicious! Had a fail with another recipe and glad I was brave enough to try again. Sooo good! I have made many of your recipes over the years and they are all excellent! I have learned a lot from you. Thank you.
DrDan
Hi Marcy,
I consider this one of my best recipes. I love simplifying recipes like this. I just add the bacon option for my wife last week.
Thanks for the note, enjoy the site and let me know if you have any questions.
Dan