Rich and creamy crock pot broccoli cheese soup is super easy to make with frozen or fresh broccoli and only a few minutes of prep before going in your slow cooker. The perfect comfort food for a cold winter day.
Introduction
Crock pot broccoli cheese soup is a great soup for a busy household. With only a few minutes of prep, you can have an excellent homemade soup ready on your schedule.
In addition to the delicious taste, this recipe is healthy and good on almost any diet. A serving of one cup comes in at about 200 calories, 9 grams of fat, and 500 mg of sodium. I have rounded the numbers in the discussion—no need to comment, please.
The carbohydrate load is already low for the low carb and keto diets. But if you skip the thickening, it drops under 10 gm of carbohydrate.
- Minimal prep so you can just dump and run.
- Great taste - as good as my stovetop recipe.
- Flexible for various diets and needs.
For low sodium people, the 500 mg of sodium will drop by about 200 if slip the added salt. There is already sodium coming from the cheese and milk.
My Rating
A very easy solid five rating.
👨🍳About the Recipe
I started one of my all-time favorite soups, Easy Broccoli Cheese Soup, inspired by recipes from Pioneer Woman and Allrecipes.
I did my usual reading of many recipes for this crock pot version. Many recipes used cans of cream of celery soup. The oddest thing was a major website using Cheese Whiz. I'm withholding the name of the site.
The two things in my previous recipe that many seem to have some issues with are the trimming of the broccoli (messy) and the creation of the roux at the beginning to help thicken the soup. To make this recipe even simpler, I'm addressing both of those issues.
🥦Ingredients
The Broccoli
This recipe uses frozen broccoli. You need about 3 cups of florets, but as little as 2 cups 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 cleanout 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 to the crock pot. The same goes for fresh broccoli—make it bite-size.
The Cheese
Some people call this broccoli cheddar soup and will only use cheddar cheese of various types. But I'm not so strict.
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.
👨🍳How to Make Crock Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup
This recipe makes about 6 cups of soup and fits nicely in a 3-quart crock pot.
A double recipe requires 4 ½ quarts or a larger 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.
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 corn starch—a slurry of 4 tablespoons of cornstarch stir 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.
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 just 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.
🥣Variations
Copycat Panera's Broccoli Cheese Soup
If you want to copycat Panera’s Broccoli Cheese Soup, then just 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, then just add one cup of matchstick-cut carrots and one stalk of thinly sliced celery at the same time as the broccoli.
❄️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.
📖Soup Recipes
Easy Crock Pot French Onion Soup
Crock Pot Ham Bone and Bean Soup
See Our Best Soups for a round-up of our best soup recipes
Also added to Smaller Crock Pot Recipe Roundup
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
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.
Add 2 cups (8oz.) of shredded cheese of your choice.
If thickening, in a small bowl, mix 4 tablespoons corn starch with about an equal amount of cold water. Mix until smooth.
Then add the corn starch mixture slowly to the hot soup and mix well. Increase the crockpot to high and cook covered another 20-30 minutes until thickened.
📖Recipe
Crock Pot Broccoli 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 cheese - usually cheddar
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
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-size 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.
- Add 2 cups (8oz.) of shredded cheese of your choice.
- If thickening, in a small bowl mix 4 tablespoons corn starch with about an equal amount of cold water. Mix until smooth.
- Then add the corn starch mixture slowly to the hot soup while mixing. Increase the crockpot to high and cook covered another 20-30 minutes until thickened.
My Private Notes
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- Choose the cheeses you like. I generally use sharp cheddar and Velveta. If using block cheese, go by weight, not volume.
- If you want to copycat Panera Broccoli Cheese Soup, then add 1 cup matchstick-cut carrots and 1 stalk 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 a bit 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.
- If you want Keto or Low Carb, then skip the corn starch. The taste is great, but it will be thinner.
- Nutrition calculated on about 1 cup serving and low-fat milk. One cup is an ok serving if served with something else. If the soup is the only dish, then we usually eat about 1 ½ cups.
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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Originally Published September 20, 2019. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
April
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
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
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
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
Can i make this recipe without broccoli, as i like to use cauliflower?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
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
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.