Description
This healthy broccoli cheddar soup is the ultimate comfort food. It’s cheesy, creamy, and packed with tender broccoli. This lighter version doesn’t sacrifice in flavor one bit. It’s easy to make, and can easily be made gluten free.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 yellow, or white onion, chopped
- 3 medium carrots, thinly sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour (sub rice flour for gluten free)
- 5 cups low sodium chicken broth (swap veggie broth for vegetarian version)
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3 teaspoons black pepper
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (if using table salt, reduce to 1/2 teaspoon)
- 3 medium heads of broccoli, cut into bite-sized florets (About 7 cups)
- 1/2 cup plain, non-fat Greek yogurt
- 6 ounces extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated – plus, a little extra for topping (either white, or yellow cheddar is fine)
Optional bread for serving
- slices of artisan French bread, or sourdough for dipping (make sure to use gluten free bread, if needed)
Instructions
- Prep the veggies and cheese – chop all the veggies as instructed above – chop the onion, slice the carrots, mince the garlic cloves, and cut up the broccoli florets – set aside in separate bowls. This soup moves quick once it gets started. Also shred the cheddar cheese at this time, if you haven’t done this in advance. You can either use a box grater, or the shredding blade on a food processor.
- Sauté – Heat a large Dutch oven, or stew pot over medium high heat. Once the pan is hot add the butter, once melted, add the onions and carrots – sauté for 3 to 5 minutes, or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add the minced garlic and sauté for another 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Make the roux – Add the flour (or rice flour for GF) and stir constantly until the flour smells nutty, about 2 minutes. Slowly stream in the chicken broth, while stirring the roux so that you avoid lumps. Also stir in the heavy cream, black pepper, kosher salt, and Dijon mustard – stir until well combined.
- Simmer – Add the broccoli florets, cover and bring the soup to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the broccoli turns bright green, and is fork tender, but not overly mushy.
- Blend – Use a slotted spoon to remove most of the veggies from the soup to a bowl, leaving behind about 1/3 of the veggies. Use an immersion blender to blend until all of the veggies are blended up. NOTE: If you don’t have an immersion blender, simply transfer the soup mixture to a regular blender. However, I recommend an immersion blender for this recipe, it’s easier. Add the Greek yogurt, and blend again.
- Add the cheese – Turn the heat back on and allow the soup to come to a simmer again, for just a minute. Remove from the heat and add the cheese a handful at a time, stirring between each addition until the cheese is fully melted. Blend one more time to ensure the cheese is nice and smooth. Add the reserved broccoli back in. At this time, taste and adjust the seasoning as needed.
- Serve – serve the soup immediately with a little extra cheese sprinkled on top, along with some black pepper. It’s also nice to serve this soup along side crusty bread for dipping, if you want.
Notes
Gluten free – To make this recipe gluten free be sure to swap the all purpose flour in the roux for rice flour. Also, be sure to serve the soup with gluten free bread, if using.
Vegetarian – swap the chicken broth for veggie broth to make this recipe vegetarian.
Cheddar cheese – I recommend using a good quality extra sharp cheddar cheese and grating it yourself. Pre-grated cheeses have anti-caking agents on them making them harder to melt smoothly. I also recommend sticking to the extra sharp cheddar because the stronger the cheddar flavor is, the less cheese you will need to use. You can use either white cheddar, or yellow cheddar. To shred the cheese you can either use a box grater, or use the shredding blade on a food processor (this is my favorite method). You can also shred the cheese in advance, and store it in an air tight container, or bag, in the fridge.
Leftovers – this soup is good leftover, simply store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Reheat gently on the stove, or in the microwave.
