Broccoli Cheese Soup
Broccoli Cheese Soup Recipe Video – scroll down for recipe card
If your only experience with broccoli cheese soup is eating it from a warmed-up can, you’ve got to give homemade broccoli cheese soup a chance. Unlike its blobby, flaccid, overcooked counterpart, homemade broccoli cheese soup is creamy and rich — sure — but also fresh and bright.
My broccoli cheese soup is just made with vegetables, milk or half-and-half, and some Cheddar cheese. There’s no roux; it’s thickened instead with potato, making it quick and simple. By cooking the stems for a longer time and the florets for just a few minutes, we keep it pretty and green.
Top the soup with croutons if you like: Cut stale bread into cubes. Heat a couple tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium heat until foamy. Add the bread and stir. Cook for several minutes, stirring or shaking occasionally, until the bread cubes are toasted. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika or any dried herbs or spices you like. Cool and serve on soup or salad.
Broccoli Cheese Soup Recipe
Broccoli Cheese Soup
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh broccoli
- 1 medium potato
- 1 stalk celery
- 3–4 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 1 cup half and half or whole milk
- 2 ounce Cheddar, cubed
- Optional: fresh dill or parsley, croutons
Instructions
- Separate broccoli florets from stalks and set aside. Peel the stalks and dice. Peel the potato and dice. (You should have about 2 cups broccoli cubes and 1 cup potato cubes). Dice celery. Mince garlic to make 2 teaspoons.
- Melt butter in a large pot and add cubed stalk, potato, celery and garlic. Saute a minute or two until the garlic is fragrant. Add the stock. Cover and bring to boil. Boil 5 minutes until tender.
- Add florets and cover. Cook another 5 minutes until tender but still bright green. Blend soup to preferred texture.
- Add half and half and cheese cubes and warm over low heat, stirring, until cheese begins to melt.
- Serve with fresh herbs and/or croutons if you like
Notes
Nutrition info is without croutons
Nutrition
- Calories: 240
- Fat: 14
- Carbohydrates: 21
- Protein: 10
14 Comments
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Can you freeze it?
I don’t know, sorry
I’m going to try this! Making the Roux always confuses me and I never know if I’m doing it right.
Perfect! This is the soup for you, then! 🙂
I only have chicken stock on hand. Is it okay to use that instead of vegetable stock? Sorry for the newbie question 😀
Totally fine, Rachel!
Can I use low sodium vegetable broth instead of stock?
Of course! Just taste at the end and add salt if necessary
I made this for dinner tonight; so easy, super fast and incredibly delicious. I’m a tinkerer, but for this soup I wouldn’t change a thing, unless it’s use the cheese (shredded) as a garnish, just so it’s easier to stir in. We loved how bright and fresh the flavor was, with the broccoli, celery and garlic playing perfectly well together. It feels like health food, making it the perfect partner for a big fat grilled cheese sandwich. Not that we did that. Just saying.
Thanks, Hilah! This one’s a keeper.
Hi Hilah! I was wondering if could use sweet potatoes instead of potatoes?
Hi April!
The texture would probably be pretty similar, but I don’t know that the flavors would go together as well.
Love it!
Do you have another way of mixing this without the tool that you used? I don’t have a blender/food processor or anything like that, but I do have a Kitchenaid…not sure if that would blend it well enough??
Nothing will get it totally smooth like a blender or food processor but you could try a potato masher or a sturdy spoon to mash it. Maybe a kitchenaid but you’d probably have to scoop all the solids out, into the mixing bowl, whip them up then add back to the liquid in the pot