Broccoli Cheddar Soup – Panera Style

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I’ve made this soup recipe several times.  Everyone always loves it and some folks have even said that it tastes even better than Panera’s version.

I honestly can’t remember where I found the recipe.  I bookmarked it, wrote the recipe down and then I got a new laptop. I’ve googled and searched for the original recipe, but much to no avail. Poo! All I know is that I found this fabulous recipe somewhere online. *eye roll*

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Enjoy!

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108 Comments

  1. I LOVE Panera’s! I found a recipe that was supposed to be just like it, but it wasn’t. If this is, I will love you for-evah. But I’ll have to wait a few weeks t try it out… darn diet 🙂
    .-= Angela @ Homegrown Mom´s last blog ..She Speaks =-.

  2. Sounds yummy!!! Can’t wait to try it…thanks for sharing!!!

    Brand new to your blog and looking forward to getting to see the rest of your site!!!

    Have a blessed Tuesday!!!

    Kelly

    1. @Kelly, Awww, thanks for your sweet comment!!!

      I’m so glad that you found my blog! My sister’s name is Kelly, so I’ll be able to remember you!

  3. Golly JEEZ! I’m drooling. I wonder if Panera offers this on Wednesdays…(checks website)…yep…well I know where I’m going for lunch today!

    Ooooor I could make this myself tonight…hmm…

    Either way thanks for sharing! 🙂

  4. I made this last night. It was oh, so yummy. I even used skim milk instead of the half and half!
    tia

  5. Howdy, i read your blog occasionally and i personal a comparable one and i had been just wondering if you get lots of spam comments? If so how do you avoid it, any plugin or anything you can advise? I get so much recently it’s driving me mad so any assistance is really much appreciated.

  6. I made this for my 9 yr old son & 4 yr old quadruplets…they LOVED it!!! Pinned it to Pinterest to share the love…thanks for the recipe!

    1. I think you could at the “adding vegetables” step. Let it cook on low and then puree before serving. That probably would work! 🙂 Hope that helps!

  7. Just wondering if I could substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth because my daughter loves broccoli cheese soup but she is vegetarian. Any thoughts? 🙂
    Thanks in advance.

  8. My husband and I made this yesterday using this recipe! We tried to follow the recipe exactly. It was very good, but the consistency was kind of grainy, even after the pureeing step. We thought maybe we heated the half and half too quickly? Is that the natural texture of the soup or did we mess up a step somewhere along the way?

    It was still great regardless! Thanks for sharing!

    1. @Catherine, Hey Catherine, I’ve never had it be grainy. Were the veggies really tender? It could be the half and half too. I hope you will try it again! 🙂

    2. It probably got to hot and broke. anytime you make a recipe using cheese, cream, or better do not let it come to a boil you can get it to a high summer but that’s it. If it gets too hot then the fats will seperate creating that grainy texture. sometimes you can fix that by making a little more rue and stiring it into your soup.

    1. Trust me. It bugs me too. I wish I had known more about blogging when I wrote down the recipe on a scrap piece of paper and didn’t write down the source. Argh.

  9. I made this for my Mom and I for lunch a couple of weeks ago. I only had half of the half and half, and used 2% for the rest. It was delicious. Thank you for the recipe!

  10. Found you on pinterest. Made this soup for dinner tonight. My 7 and 9 yr old asked for seconds! So delicious. Need the bread bowl next time.

  11. Hey,
    Thank you so much for posting this! I used to live in NY and went to Panera all the time, now I moved to Brazil and am definitely going to try to make this at home. I have a few questions before I try this myself,
    – On the top of the recipe where it says 2T of butter, melted. What does the “T” stand for? and the little “t” for the nutmeg?
    – They don’t sell half and half in Brazil. What is a good substitute?
    – They don’t sell chicken broth too, can I make that myself?
    Thank You so much!
    Pam

    1. Hi Pam! Thanks for your comment! T = Tablespoon and t=teaspoon. You could just use milk instead of half and half and yes, you can use homemade chicken broth from cooking a whole chicken. 🙂 I hope that helps!

  12. I made this tonight and it is a keeper. My 2 1/2 year old son who won’t eat anything green ate almost all that I gave him 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!

    1. Hmmmm, you probably could make it ahead. You might want to use an immersion blender or whisk to get the consistency just right after freezing. If you try it, please let me know!

  13. Thank you! I have been craving broccoli cheddar soup and didn’t have a good recipe! This is my first time to “My Blessed Life” and I love the site.
    Warmly,

    Faerl Marie

  14. Hey Myra, I’m Nadya from Indonesia. I’ve been planning to make this recipe for me and my boyfriend anniversary next Saturday. But i’m a little bit scared because I’m not very good at cooking. I wanna ask you some question and please kindly answer it :D.
    1. what is the hardest step that I should be worry of?
    2. is it still fine if I use a chicken stock rather than a chicken broth? because I don’t really know how to make a chicken broth.
    3. is it fine if I didn’t use a cheddar cheese but with another cheese?

    thank you for the recipe anyway! it does looks so yummy! And I’m sorry cause my english isn’t that good 😀

  15. Hi I just found Panera’s broccoli soup about a year ago and I am addicted !!! Finding this recipe is awsome, it will make my winter a much happier one! But I am a stickler for details and I want to get this as close as possible. So can you tell me when you say butter – what kind? Are you using a stick butter or a tub? If you don’t mind, can you tell me the name you use? I’ve had a lot of recipes call for butter and I use margarine instead because of the flavor. I trust that butter is true for this one but I’d love to know what you have gotten the best results with. Thanks !!!

    1. I typically use any type of organic butter. Kroger’s store brand is totally fine. My favorite butter is Kerry Gold. I use sticks. 🙂

    1. You might be able to freeze it. My concern is that the consistency might be watery or weird after freezing.

  16. I made this tonight and it was SO YUMMY, i doubled my recipe to feed 6 adults and 3 children(and still had left overs!) i also added a 1/2 lb medium cheddar in addition to the sharp, instead of julienne-ing(?) the carrots i put baby carrots through my salad shooter (grater) and had them shredded which turned out amazing, and instead of pureeing the whole batch i pureed about half to leave some bigger broccoli pieces which my FIL said were brilliant 🙂 Thank you so much for the recipe! I am going to try to freeze the rest tonight and in a couple weeks i’ll let you know how it turned out.

  17. We made this on Monday. I was really excited because of all the positive comments it received. We were very disappointed. We ate it for dinner because it’s what we had prepared, but it tasted extremely fake. Canned soup is much better than this. I don’t understand how so many people raved about it and I could barely get a small bowl down. We had made extra for left overs but had to throw it out because we couldn’t bare to eat it, even after adding salt and pepper. 🙁

  18. I have tried this recipe a few weeks ago and the texture was grainy… What did I do wrong? I am not a experienced cook but I didn’t have a blender so I used a mixer… Was that my problem?? I want to make this tonight but I don’t want to screw it up again.

    1. I suspect that it was the mixer. It won’t get the texture as fine as possible like a blender will.

    2. Hi Myra! If you used pre-grated cheese from a bag, that could have been the problem as well since it is coated in a powder that prevents it from sticking together. This coating prevents the cheese from melting well and blending with other ingredients. I’ve found this out the hard way and did a bit of research!

  19. I love panera’s soup, so i was excited to try this recipe. Made it for my family this weekend, and my husband loved it. It was good, but I feel like there is something missing, a flavor I can’t quite put my finger on…its eating away at me!

    1. I think I figured it out. I didn’t get the recipe from this exact site, though it is exactly the same, I didn’t use sharp cheddar, i used mild. I must have missed that part in the recipe, would that make the difference?

  20. Spot on! My family and I are living in Spain and my daughters really miss Panera Bread’s Broccoli Cheddar Soup. I made this last night and they absolutely loved it! It was so delicious even before I added the cheese. Low temps and constant stirring are key here since milk tends to scald, but I was patient and the soup was a hit. Thank you!

  21. I’ve made this soup tons of times!! I love it!! I’m cooking it for 30 ppl this weekend, do you think doubling will be enough??

    1. Absolutely not lol. If you account for the seconds that people will definately be asking for it won’t be enough. I say it can’t hurt to have more than you need rather than to run out.
      Happy cooking!

  22. Omg just made this recipe and it came out awesome! Exactly like panera’s. My family ate it up quickly and came back for seconds. I will be making a double batch next time 🙂

  23. I’m confused on the nutmeg?! I made this last night, and all I could taste was the nutmeg…my husband too. IMHO it totally ruined the soup. I tasted it before I added the nutmeg and it was delish! Next time I’ll stop there! 😀 Otherwise it was fabulous, thanks for sharing!

  24. I made this tonight and it was good! I only had two cups of 1/2 and 1/2 so I used 2 cups of that and 2 cups rice milk. I also had to add some corn starch to make it thick enough. Also I chopped the veggies in my food processor before I added them to the soup because I don’t have an immersion blender and I figured it would be easier that way.

    I would not put nutmeg next time though, I only put a dash and it was still too much for my tastes.

  25. Made this tonight but halved the recipe because I just cooked for my roommate and I, still had left over. Forgot about the nutmeg, but it tasted great! Really…just like Panera’s. Pretty easy too.

  26. We made this last night. It was very yummy. We did not add nutmeg as we did not have any , used up the end of some half and half and we used an immersion blender. We did not have any problems with graininess or “fake taste” . Thanks for sharing.

  27. I absolutely LOVE broccoli and cheddar soup!

    Is the purée part crucial? Or can I leave it as it is?

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