My Mom’s delicious Broccoli Cheese Soup recipe is better than a restaurant and made with real cheddar cheese and tons of hidden vegetables.

Try some more soup recipes! I love Chicken Enchilada Soup, Clam Chowder, and Classic Homemade Chili!

Broccoli cheese soup served in a bowl with a spoon.

There are a few soups that my mom made growing up that have had my heart for years, and this Broccoli Cheese Soup is one of them! (Her Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup and famous Gumbo, also make the list!)

Years ago when I was a new mother and cooking for my family I made her walk me through the recipe, step-by-step, so I could document it for all of us (she never uses a recipe). I hope you all love it as much as I do!

What makes it unique? The shredded potato and other hidden veggies. The shredded potato adds texture, creaminess and flavor. This is a hearty soup, but healthier than most recipes you’ll find, and I’ve included additional tips below to make it even healthier.

Broccoli Cheese Soup Ingredients:

  • Vegetable broth: Using vegetable broth keeps the soup vegetarian, but you could use chicken broth. I love better than bouillon vegetable base, which is also a great way to add flavor at the end of cooking the soup, if you feel it needs it. You can find it at your local grocery store or Walmart.
  • Vegetables: Carrots, celery, Yukon Gold or Russet potatoes, broccoli, yellow onion: this soup is full of vegetables to give it an awesome texture and taste! The grated potato cooks down so you don’t notice it but it ends up giving an extra depth and creaminess to the broth. I grate the potatoes with the skin on, but you can peel them first.
  • Butter
  • All-purpose flour
  • Half and half: regular or fat-free
  • Whole milk
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • Shredded cheddar cheese: Good quality sharp cheddar cheese, at room temperature, will taste the best and melt smoothly. Freshly shredded cheese is a ESSENTIAL! The pre-shredded kind will not melt very well, or taste as good.

How to Make Broccoli Cheese Soup:

Prep Ingredients: Grate or chop vegetables. Shred cheese and set aside to allow it to come to room temperature.

Make Soup: Add vegetable broth to a large soup pot over medium heat. Add carrots, celery and potatoes. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer until the vegetables are tender, 3-5 minutes.

Chopped and shredded vegetable cooking in a soup pot with broth.

Add Broccoli: Add chopped broccoli and simmer for another minute or two, depending on how chunky or fine you chopped it. Remove from heat.

Fresh broccoli florets added to a soup pot with cooked veggies and broth.

Sauté Onion: In a separate skillet over medium heat, sauté onion in 1 tablespoon butter until tender and lightly browned. Add onion to pot with vegetables.

Chopped onion sautéing in a skillet.

Make Roux: Add remaining 4 tablespoons of butter to the skillet, over medium heat. Once melted, whisk in ¼ c. flour and stir well to make a roux.

Add Half and Half: Pour in half and half and milk, one cup at a time, stirring constantly. Cook roux, stirring continually with whisk until thickened, smooth, and bubbly. Season well with salt and pepper.Slowly add rue to the pot of cooked vegetables, stirring carefully to combine. Cook for 2 minutes.

Two process photos of making a roux for soup, from butter and flour.

Add Cheese: Remove from heat and add grated cheese, stirring until melted. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper or vegetable bouillon base, to taste, if needed.

Freshly shredded cheddar cheese added to a pot of broccoli soup.

Serve: These Homemade Bread Bowls take this meal to the next level!

A bread bowl with broccoli cheese soup and a spoon in it.

Storage and Freezing Instructions:

To Store: Pour in an airtight container and keep in the fridge for 3-4 days. Reheat in microwave or on stovetop.

To Freeze: Place in a freezer safe container before adding the roux, milk, and cream (otherwise the half and half may separate upon reheating and the soup could develop a slightly grainy texture).

Recipe Variations:

  • Healthy Broccoli Cheese Soup: Use leaner milk and half and half. I have used fat free half and half with great results and low fat milk works well, the broth is not as creamy.
  • Instant Pot Broccoli Cheddar Soup: Add broth and all veggies to the instant pot. Cook on high pressure/manual for 2 minutes. Quick release steam. Cook roux in a separate skillet and add to the pot. Stir in cheddar cheese. 
  • Crock Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup: Add broth and all vegetables to the slow cooker. Cook on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 6-8 hours. Cook roux in a separate skillet and add to the pot. Stir in shredded cheddar cheese. 

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Recipe

Broccoli cheese soup served in a bowl with a spoon.
Prep 15 minutes
Cook 25 minutes
Total 40 minutes
Save Recipe

Ingredients
 
 

  • 3 cups low sodium vegetable broth*
  • 1 cup grated carrot , about 1-2 carrots
  • 1 cup finely diced celery , about 2 ribs celery
  • 2 small/medium potatoes , grated (Yukon Gold or Russet)
  • 4 1/2 cups chopped broccoli , about 3 small heads of broccoli
  • 1 medium yellow onion , finely chopped, (about 1 cup)
  • 5 Tablespoons butter , divided
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups half and half (fat free works well!)
  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  • Salt and Pepper , to taste
  • 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions
 

  • Prepare vegetables by grating or chopping. Shred cheese and set aside to allow it to come to room temperature.
  • Add vegetable broth to a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the carrots, celery and potatoes, cover pot, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer until the vegetables are tender, 3-5 minutes.
  • Add chopped broccoli and simmer for another minutes or two, depending on how chunky or fine you chopped it. Remove from heat.
  • In a separate skillet over medium heat, sauté onion in 1 tablespoon butter until tender and lightly browned.
  • Add onion to pot with vegetables. Add remaining 4 tablespoons of butter to the skillet, over medium heat. Once melted, whisk in ¼ c. flour and stir well to make a roux.
  • Add the half and half and milk, one cup at a time, stirring constantly. Cook roux, stirring continually with whisk until thickened, smooth and bubbly. Season well with salt and pepper.
  • Slowly add rue to the pot of cooked vegetables, stirring carefully to combine. Cook for 2 minutes.
  • Remove from heat and add grated cheese, stirring until melted. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper or vegetable bouillon base, to taste, if needed.

Notes

Broth: Using vegetable broth keeps the soup vegetarian, but you could use chicken broth. I love better than bouillon vegetable base, which is also a great way to add flavor at the end of cooking the soup, if you feel it needs it. You can find it at your local grocery store or Walmart.
Storage Instructions: Pour in an airtight container and keep in the fridge for 3-4 days. Reheat in microwave or on stovetop.
Freezing Instructions: Place in a freezer safe container before adding the roux, milk, and cream (otherwise the half and half may separate upon reheating and the soup could develop a slightly grainy texture).
Healthy Broccoli Cheese Soup: Use leaner milk and half and half. I have used fat free half and half with great results and low fat milk works well, the broth is just not as creamy.
Instant Pot Broccoli Cheddar Soup: Add broth and all veggies to the instant pot. Cook on high pressure/manual for 2 minutes. Quick release steam. Cook roux in a separate skillet and add to the pot. Stir in cheddar cheese. 
Crock Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup: Add broth and all vegetables to the slow cooker. Cook on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 6-8 hours. Cook roux in a separate skillet and add to the pot. Stir in shredded cheddar cheese. 

Nutrition

Calories: 390kcalCarbohydrates: 16gProtein: 16gFat: 30gSaturated Fat: 19gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 90mgSodium: 761mgPotassium: 454mgFiber: 2gSugar: 6gVitamin A: 4168IUVitamin C: 49mgCalcium: 461mgIron: 1mg

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This post was originally shared September 2019. Updated January 2022.

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Lauren Allen

Welcome! I’m Lauren, a mom of four and lover of good food. Here you’ll find easy recipes and weeknight meal ideas made with real ingredients, with step-by-step photos and videos.

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  1. 1 star
    When I was looking for a Broccoli Cheese Soup recipe to make, this one caught my eye. I liked the fact that it had potatoes and carrots in it. That’s about all I liked. I started to make this around 5pm and I sat down to eat it around 830pm. The chopping and grating of the vegetables took quite awhile. I wasn’t sure whether you wanted a fine grate or a shred. I found that using a box grater took forever. I started with a fine grate and then switched to a shred for the carrots–which I then chopped even more by hand. The celery chopping wasn’t too bad. At least it wasn’t grating. I wasn’t sure how fine to grate the potatoes. I didn’t want them to be too large because potatoes take a lot of time to cook. Grating them fine was taking too long–so I just shredded them and hand chopped them like the carrots. After cooking those vegetables for the instructed 3-5 minutes, they were still too hard. I knew they would never soften in that amount of time. I cooked them for about 30 minutes. Nexted I added the chopped broccoli. One to two minutes did not soften the broccoli at all. I cooked that mixture for about 20 minutes. I then used my immersion blending to smooth things out a bit–thinking if things were smaller they would finally soften up. Next I did the onions. They took about 20 minutes to turn brown. I ended up putting in about an extra cup of broth too. The roux was next, and it took about 20 minutes or more for the milks to thicken and bubble up. Maybe using a smaller dutch oven was the cause for the prolongation of this stage. I used a low temp for this stage because I did not want to scorch the sauce. The cheese blended great. That was one good thing. In the end I feel the soup tasted good–but my vegetables were still too crunchy. A prep time of 15 minutes is unrealistic. Cook time of 25 minutes is a joke. The 40 minute total time cannot be real. I would love to see a video of you preparing this soup. I might do it in a crock pot. That’s the only true way to get the vegetables soft.

    1. Thanks for giving the Broccoli Cheese Soup a go and for the honest feedback. Totally get where you’re coming from with the prep and cook times. Just so you know, those times are based on multiple test runs and what generally works. But, everyone’s kitchen dance is a bit different, right?

      A quick tip: give the recipe a once-over before diving in. It might help get a feel for the timing and any tweaks you might wanna make. You can always send us a message here or on IG or Facebook with questions.

      Appreciate you sharing your experience – it really helps! Hope your next kitchen adventure is just right.

      1. This review was from own personal experience. I just didn’t want others to look at this recipe and think that they were going to have it on the table in 40 minutes. I knew myself that wasn’t going to happen from the start. I just didn’t think it was going to take as long as it did. A lot of it was that the cooking times to soften up the vegetables were unrealistic. I thought about doing all of the chopping a day ahead, but that wouldn’t have made the vegetables cook any faster. Potatoes take so long to soften. I probably should have pre-cooked the vegetables. I really think this recipe is best for the slow cooker at around 10 hours on low. Thanks for your response.

  2. i am a 82 yr old grandma that likes to find new recipes. i still cook and drive. i will
    enjoy getting your recipes thank you

  3. 5 stars
    We had this for dinner last night and it was delicious. Today we were happy to have some leftover for lunch. Thank you for sharing your recipe.

  4. 5 stars
    Yum,yum,yum! My neighbor got gifted a case of broccoli and brought me a bunch so I figured soup! This is easy and just wonderful on a cold day.
    Delicious thank you for posting this.

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