Rich and creamy, this easy Crock Pot Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup is made with frozen or fresh broccoli, cheddar cheese, and common ingredients in only a few minutes of prep before going in your slow cooker. The perfect comfort food for a cold winter day.
Ingredients
Broccoli—frozen or fresh
Broth—chicken or vegetable
Milk—Or half & half, or cream
Pantry ingredients—onion, garlic powder, salt, black pepper
Cheddar Cheese—or other cheese
Optional thickening—cornstarch
Optional—carrot, celery, bacon
Jump To (scroll for more)
- Ingredients
- 👨🍳How to Cook Crock Pot Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup
- ⏲️How long to cook in the crock pot?
- 🥦What broccoli to use?
- 🧀What cheese to use?
- ♨️Other crock pot soup recipes you will like
- Copycat Panera's Broccoli Cheese Soup
- Bacon Broccoli Cheese Soup
- ↕️How to adjust the size and using a mini 2-quart crock pot
- 🥣How to serve
- ❄️Storage of Leftovers
- ❓FAQs
- 📖The Recipe Card with Step-by-Step Instructions
- Crock Pot Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup
Featured Comment from Amy:
"This is awesome! The broccoli and onion was nice and tender-crisp, and the cheese sauce was just right."
Crock pot broccoli cheddar cheese soup is a great soup for a busy household. Made with sharp cheddar for great flavor, or use a mixture of cheese to make it just crock pot broccoli cheese soup.
In addition to the delicious taste, this recipe is healthy and good on almost any diet. A serving of 1 ½ cups comes in at about 200 calories, 5 grams of fat, and 500 mg of sodium if made with skim milk and 2% milk cheese.
I started one of my all-time favorite stovetop soups, Easy Broccoli Cheese Soup, inspired by recipes from Pioneer Woman and Allrecipes. And made the necessary adjustments for easy crock pot cooking.
👨🍳How to Cook Crock Pot Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup
Use frozen or fresh broccoli.
Chop one small or ½ medium onion.
In a smaller crock pot (3-4 quarts), mix 1 can (about 2 cups) of chicken broth, the chopped onion, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, ¼ teaspoon garlic powder, and 2 cups of milk.
Add about 3 cups of frozen or fresh broccoli cut into spoon-sized bites. Mix well and cook on low for 4-5 hours or high for 2-3 hours. Check that the broccoli is tender. If not, extend the cooking time by 30-60 minutes. All crock pots cook differently.
Optional: Mash about half the broccoli with a potato masher while still in the crock pot. The exact amount is more your taste and your broccoli. You may also use an immersion blender if you want.
If thickening, in a small bowl, mix 4 tablespoons of cornstarch with about an equal amount of cold water. Mix until smooth. Then, stir the cornstarch mixture slowly into the hot soup. Increase the crockpot to high and cook covered for another 20-30 minutes until thickened.
After any thickening is complete, add 2 cups (8oz.) of shredded sharp cheddar cheese or the cheese of your choice.
Serve when the cheese is melted.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
⏲️How long to cook in the crock pot?
The best answer is to cook until the broccoli is tender. 2-3 hours on high or 4-5 hours on low will generally be good.
Stovetop Broccoli Cheese Soup
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 or one of the other variations.
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🥦What broccoli to use?
This recipe uses frozen broccoli, but fresh broccoli may be used. You need about 3 cups of florets, but as little as 2 or as much as 4 cups will work.
A pound of frozen broccoli is about 4 cups or a bit more. Since most bags of frozen broccoli florets are 12 ounces, a whole bag is usually fine.
Fresh broccoli will cook fine. One large head will clean out to be about 3-4 cups of florets. But it is acceptable to be a little over or under on the amount of broccoli. I usually chop up the medium-sized stems of fresh broccoli, but I generally skip the large, thick trunk.
The florets need to fit in a soup spoon easily. Some frozen broccoli is large and should be chopped smaller before adding it to the crock pot. The same goes for fresh broccoli—make it bite-size.
🧀What cheese to use?
The recommended cheese is a good quality sharp cheddar cheese. But other types of cheddar cheese may be used or
I admit to liking some Velveeta for the smooth texture when melted and the mild taste. So here, I generally use sharp cheddar cheese and Velveeta. But choose the cheeses you like to vary the flavor.
Use 2 cups of shredded cheese, which is 8 oz. Frequently, I add more cheese, but it is not needed. If I use Velveeta, I weigh the amount and cut it into small cubes.
♨️Other crock pot soup recipes you will like
For a small crock pot, check out Easy French Onion Soup, Homemade Vegetable Beef Soup, and Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup. Or, for a larger crock pot, see the classic Crock Pot Ham Bone and Bean Soup.
This recipe is part of Our Best Soups and Smaller Crock Pot Recipe Roundup.
Copycat Panera's Broccoli Cheese Soup
If you want to copycat Panera’s Broccoli Cheese Soup, add one cup of matchstick-cut carrots and one stalk of thinly sliced celery at the same time as the broccoli.
Bacon Broccoli Cheese Soup
If you want to copycat Panera’s Broccoli Cheese Soup, add one cup of matchstick-cut carrots and one stalk of thinly sliced celery at the same time as the broccoli.
↕️How to adjust the size and using a mini 2-quart crock pot
This recipe makes a bit over 6 cups of soup for 4 servings of 1 ½ cups and fits nicely in a 2 ½ quart or larger crock pot. Perfect for our "for two" household since we love leftovers.
To use a 2-quart crock pot for a full recipe, leave out 1 cup of broth until the last hour of cooking. A half recipe works fine in a mini 2-quart crock pot.
To adjust the recipe size:
- Use the recipe card and adjust the servings from 4 to the amount you want.
- Use the amount of ingredients in the ingredient list, not the instructions—those do not adjust.
- The half recipe will fit in a 2-quart mini crock pot.
- A double recipe fits in a 5-quart or larger crock pot.
- Cooking and endpoint remain the same.
🥣How to serve
Serve with homemade bread, yeast dinner rolls, or crackers like Sesame Crackers.
❄️Storage of Leftovers
Your soup is good in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. And good stored in an airtight container in the freeze for 3-4 months.
❓FAQs
The soup texture is a personal taste question. Some will like the soup more as a puree. You can use the immersion blender to get the consistency you want. I want only a little of that, so I suggest some smashing with a potato masher.
If you want a thicker soup, I suggest using cornstarch—a slurry of 4 tablespoons of cornstarch stirred into an equal amount of cool water. Mix in a small bowl until smooth, then blend the mixture into the crock pot and turn the crock pot to high for 20-30 minutes. ADD THE CHEESE AFTER THIS ADDED COOKING.
You can make a roux with butter and flour on the stovetop, then mix it into the hot soup. That works great, but it seems to scare people. To make a roux, use ½ cup each of flour and butter. See How to Make Gravy from Scratch for more discussion about making a roux.
The suggested amount of thickening will be enough for most people, but if you want very thick, increase the thickener by 50% to 100%.
A few users have seen this. There are two possibilities.
First, the cheese is of poor quality. Some generic cheese won't melt well.
Second, prolonged cooking of the cheese at a high temperature. Some crock pots run too hot on high, or the soup is cooked too long with the cheese. So, add the cheese at the very end of cooking.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
Have you tried this recipe, or have a question? Join the community discussion in the comments.
📖The Recipe Card with Step-by-Step Instructions
Crock Pot Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup
Ingredients
- 12-16 oz frozen broccoli - about 3 cups, cut to spoon size
- 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 2 cups milk - low fat is fine
- 1 onion - small or ½ medium
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 8 oz shredded cheddar cheese - or other cheese
To Thicken - optional
- 4 tablespoons corn starch - in a slurry of cold water
Other optional ingredients
- 1 cup carrots- cut matchstick
- 1 stalk celery chopped
- 3 strips bacon-crumbled
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Chop one small or ½ medium onion.
- In a smaller crock pot (3-4 quarts), mix 1 can (about 2 cups) of chicken broth, the chopped onion, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, ¼ teaspoon garlic powder, and 2 cups of milk.
- Add about 3 cups of frozen or fresh broccoli cut into spoon-sized bites. Mix well and cook on low for 4-5 hours or high for 2-3 hours. Check that the broccoli is tender. If not, extend the cooking time by 30-60 minutes. All crock pots cook differently.
- Optional: Mash about half the broccoli with a potato masher while still in the crock pot. The exact amount is more your taste and your broccoli. You may also use an immersion blender if you want.
- If thickening, in a small bowl, mix 4 tablespoons of cornstarch with about an equal amount of cold water. Mix until smooth.
- Then, stir the cornstarch mixture slowly into the hot soup. Increase the crockpot to high and cook covered for another 20-30 minutes until thickened.
- After any thickening is complete, add 2 cups (8oz.) of shredded sharp cheddar cheese or the cheese of your choice—serve when the cheese is melted.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- Sharp cheddar is the standard, but choose the cheese you like.
- If you want to copycat Panera Broccoli Cheese Soup, 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.
- The broccoli needs to be small or chopped small enough to fit in a spoon. I suggest starting with Birdeye Baby Broccoli Florets, which has smaller florets already.
- 4 hours will usually be enough to get the broccoli tender, but check and add more time if needed. Do not proceed until it is tender. Every crock pot is different.
- Great as leftovers. Good refrigerated for 3-4 days. You can also freeze for 3 months.
- Using low sodium broth will decrease the sodium by about 150mg per serving.
- If you want Keto or Low Carb, then skip the corn starch. The taste is great, but it will be thinner.
- Nutrition is calculated on about 1 ½ cup servings made with skim milk and lower-fat cheese.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You can adjust the number of servings above; however, only the amount in the ingredient list is adjusted, not the instructions.
Nutrition Estimate (may vary)
Originally Published September 20, 2019. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Katrina Stirn says
What size crockpot are your recipes made in? 1.5 Qt, 2 Qt?)
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Katrina,
Each recipe is different, and you will find a discussion in the post. This recipe states 3 quarts or larger. Also, you will usually find discussion within the post of any accommodations that are needed to adjust the recipes.
Dan
PS I use a 3.5 quart but the 1-2 qt. seem to always have heat control issues, so be careful. Also, I find making very small amounts has too much work and waste for the results.
JamesAdam says
Yumm, mmmmm, heavy grunt!
Translated from Caveman to English:
"The Broccoli Cheese Soup is pretty good"
April says
Disappointed with this recipe. The cheese didn’t melt, and was just clumpy. I see in the comments now that it was the brand that I must have used, but I’d recommend adding that to the notes. The soup also didn’t thicken, even though I added the cornstarch. There were also too many onions for my liking.
Taylor says
I followed the recipe EXACTLY but somehow my cheese ended up chunky and gross ... any idea what happened? I’m fairly new to cooking so I have no clue!
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Taylor,
Welcome to the blog.
That is caused by the type/brand of cheese you are using. Things like generic, store-brand shredded cheese are the most common. They have too much wax and some are coated to keep them from clumping in the bag and can make some of them unpredictable. Also, those cheeses have an experation date and that does matter some. But it can happen with other cheese. I tend to use 50% Velvetta that is made to melt and then a brand name shredded cheddar and never have a problem.
As a side note, the reason I add the cheese at the end is to prevent this sort of thing. Some cheeses don't cook well.
Hope that helps.
Dan
Donna Bowlin says
Absolutely DELICIOUS! We added some cauliflower as we didn't have enough broccoli and it's the perfect balance. Next time I'll use my older smaller crockpot since this big one I used was I think too big & it didn't get hot enough fast enough but still it was SUPER easy and tasty. A WINNER WINNER BROCCOLI DINNER
Asraf abid says
Can i make this recipe without broccoli, as i like to use cauliflower?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Asraf,
Welcome to the blog.
On the stovetop version of this recipe, somebody did if I remember correctly. I have not do it but it should work and cook about the same.
Dan
Amy in MI says
This is awesome! The broccoli and onion was nice and tender-crisp, and the cheese sauce was just right. We added the bacon, too. A great, warm, hearty soup for a cool autumn day.