With heavy whipping cream, cream cheese, and cheddar cheese, we are going to show you just how wonderful a hot bowl of broccoli cheese soup (Instant Pot) can be! This delicious and easy broccoli soup is tastes like it came from a restaurant, but it's simply a homemade pressure cooker dinner that is ready in under 30-minutes and definitely a WHOLE LOTTA YUM!
Instant Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup
I don't know about you, but a cup of hearty broccoli cheddar soup is one of the finest recipes out there. If you've ever had the Panera broccoli cheese soup--which is AMAZING!--this homemade instant pot version is even better!
While this broccoli cheese soup instant pot recipe is a one-pan dinner, there are times when something more is needed. Instant pot beer brats pair perfectly with this broccoli and cheddar soup, as does a side salad.
Why You'll Love This!
- Our broccoli cheese soup instant pot recipe is the perfect quick dinner option pressure cooking for just 1-minute!
- Filled with all the robust flavors you would expect from cheddar broccoli soup, we are starting out with simple kitchen basics including onions and garlic, to create a restaurant-quality soup at home.
- To add depth to your broccoli cheese soup instant pot recipe we are using 3 different types of dairy so you can create that creamy soup consistency you know and love.
- Not only is our broccoli cheese soup instant pot recipe super easy to make at home, but it's also perfect for low-carb, keto, gluten-free, and sugar-free eaters alike. It can be vegetarian compliant as well with a quick adaption (listed below).
We love using our Instant Pot to create a wide variety of soups in our home. Be sure to check out our Instant Pot Hot and Sour Soup, our Instant Pot Loaded Potato Soup, or our Creamy Chicken Taco Soup (Instant Pot) the next time you are in the mood for a piping hot bowl of soup.
No pressure cooker? No problem! We have a stovetop broccoli cheese soup available and the crockpot directions are listed below!
On Keto? Grab our FREE keto foods list here OR Snag our Keto Binder HERE
Ingredient Notes
Your broccoli cheese soup instant pot recipe does require quite a few ingredients, but your effort will be rewarded with a dinner that is simple to prepare and tastes like it simmered for hours.
- butter
- garlic cloves - minced
- sweet onion - finely chopped
- broccoli - cut into small bite-sized pieces
- chicken broth
- shredded cheddar cheese - from a block not from a bag
- salt
- ground pepper
- ground cayenne pepper
- cream cheese
- whipping cream - or half and half
Variations
- You can use a mix of both broccoli and cauliflower in place of broccoli only.
- Feel free to add precooked chicken (like these panfried tenders), leftover shredded chicken, or even rotisserie chicken to your soup.
- Other protein options include sliced sausage pieces and crumbled bacon.
- Use a blender or immersion blender to puree the soup after cooking.
Equipment
A Pressure Cooker - This is the Instant Pot model that we used.
Diet Adaptions
- Vegetarian - To make your broccoli and cheese soup vegetarian, swap the chicken broth for vegetable broth.
- Keto/low carb - As written, the recipe is already keto friendly and low carb. Just be sure to use whole fat dairy products that are ideally 0 carb.
Step by Step Instructions
As your broccoli cheese soup instant pot recipe needs just 1-minute of pressure cooking time, most of the work you do will be considered prepwork. This recipe comes together quickly, so be sure to prep your vegetables and cheese before you turn your instant pot on and begin cooking.
Prep
Chop, mince, dice, and shred all vegetables and cheese.
Assemble
Melt the butter in your instant pot with the saute setting on high.
Saute the diced onions for 3-4 minutes, add minced garlic and cook for 30 more seconds.
Add the broccoli, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and chicken broth to the instant pot.
Cover with your lid and be sure the valve is set to sealing.
Pressure Cook
Cook on manual high (or pressure cook depending on your model) for 1 minute.
Immediately do a quick release.
Stir in ½ cup of cream cheese until melted.
Add the whipping cream and stir until the cream of broccoli soup is heated through.
Stir in the shredded cheddar cheese a ½ cup at a time until melted. (Make sure it's melted before adding another ½ cup. This prevents cheese clumping.)
Serve immediately. Enjoy!
Recipe Tips
- For best results, make your broccoli cheddar soup instant pot recipe using fresh broccoli.
- While it may not seem like a 1-minute pressure cook is enough to cook your broccoli, it is! The pressure cooker will need about 10-minutes to come up to pressure and the broccoli will be cooking the entire time.
- Incorporate the diary slowly and stir completely before adding in more to prevent clumping.
Common Questions
You can easily serve broccoli and cheese soup as a one-pot dinner, but if you are looking to add a little more opt for these beer brats or pan-fried chicken tenders.
No. Due to the dairy content, broccoli and cheese soup will not thaw well and become grainy. It's best to eat this soup fresh, or store it in the fridge and eat within 3-days. It will become thicker after sitting, so you may need to add a little additional chicken stock or heavy cream when you reheat it.
Yes, it is! We are using full-fat dairy, shredding our own cheese, and skipping the traditional thickener (such as a roux made with butter and flour) to create a warm and creamy broccoli and cheese soup that is perfect for those who are trying to stay low-carb or keto.
Combine the broccoli, garlic, and onion in a crock-pot. (No butter is needed since you aren’t precooking the onion like the pressure cooker recipe did). Add the chicken stock, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Set your slower cooker to the LOW setting for 4-5 hours.
After 4+ hours when the broccoli and vegetables are cooked through, you’ll need to turn the heat to HIGH to finish cooking the soup.
We HIGHLY recommend grating your cheese from a block and not using pre-shredded cheese. Pre-shredded cheese is mixed with potato starch and it often doesn’t melt very well. You’ll get much better results if you grate your own cheese.
Mix in the shredded cheddar cheese a little at a time, if you stir it all in together cheese has a tendency to clump and stick. Take about a ½ cup of cheese at a time, and stir until it’s melted before adding another ½ cup of cheese.
Stir in the cream cheese until completely melted.
Other Easy Instant Pot Recipes:
Looking for more Instant Pot recipes?
- Instant Pot Beer Brats ~ Low Carb & Keto
- Easy Instant Pot Country Style Ribs
- Low Carb Taco Soup
- Instant Pot Pizza Soup
- Instant Pot Mississippi Roast
Come connect with us on Instagram! Be sure to tag us (wholelotta.yum) when you make a recipe. You can also find us on Facebook, and Pinterest.
Broccoli Cheese Soup (Instant Pot, Crock-pot)
This amazing instant pot broccoli cheese soup is the ultimate comfort food and is so easy to prepare with a pressure cooker (or crock-pot!) Broccoli cheddar soup will surely become a family favorite, plus it's low carb, keto, gluten free, and vegetarian too!
Ingredients
- 2 T butter
- ½ sweet onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 4 cups small broccoli florets
- 4 cups chicken broth ( or vegetable broth)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ cup cream cheese
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 2 cups medium cheddar, shredded
Instructions
- Melt the butter in your instant pot with the saute setting on high
- Saute the diced onions for 3-4 minutes, add minced garlic and cook for 30 more seconds
- Add the broccoli, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and chicken broth to the instant pot. Cook on manual high (or pressure cook depending on your model) for 1 minute. Immediately do a quick release.
- Stir in ½ cup of cream cheese until melted
- Add the whipping cream and stir until the cream of broccoli soup is heated through
- Stir in the shredded cheddar cheese a ½ cup at a time until melted. Make sure it's melted before adding another ½ cup. This prevents cheese clumping
- Serve immediately. Enjoy!
Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheddar Soup Recipe
- Combine the broccoli, garlic, and onion in a crock-pot. Add the chicken stock, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Set your slower cooker to the LOW setting for 4-5 hours.
- After 4+ hours when the broccoli and vegetables are cooked through, you'll need to turn the heat to HIGH to finish cooking the soup.
- We HIGHLY recommend grating your cheese from a block and not using pre-shredded cheese. Pre-shredded cheese is mixed with potato starch and it often doesn't melt very well. You'll get much better results if you grate your own cheese.
- Mix in the shredded cheddar cheese a little at a time, if you stir it all in together cheese has a tendency to clump and stick. Take about a ½ cup of cheese at a time, and stir until it's melted before adding another ½ cup of cheese.
- Stir in the cream cheese until completely melted.
- Add the whipping cream and stir to combine. Serve immediately. You can substitute half n half if you want a soup slightly less rich.
- The broccoli cheddar soup thickens upon standing if it's thicker than you prefer simply add a little chicken broth until it's the desired consistency.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Whipping cream does not curdle under pressure but if you're trying to lighten the soup up a bit and want to swap half and half or milk, stir it in after pressure cooking.
To keep the soup keto friendly and low carb, look for 0 carb dairy products and be sure to shred the cheese from a block instead of buying pre-shredded.
Shredded cheese from a block works best in the recipe and melts better since pre-shredded packaged cheese is covered with potato starch and doesn't break down as well.
Feel free to swap out the vegetables for cauliflower to make a cauliflower cheese soup or change the type of cheese you're using.
Nutrition Information
Yield 6 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 443Total Fat 41gCarbohydrates 5.1gNet Carbohydrates 4.8gFiber .3gSugar Alcohols 0gProtein 11g
The nutritional data is just an estimate and based on the specific brands I purchased. If you're following a restricted diet, be sure to calculate this data for yourself manually or with your favorite nutritional app or website.
Gary says
Delicious!!!!
Caley says
Can you use frozen or steamed broccoli in this recipe?
Mandy says
This broccoli soup was amazing!! My husband loved it. Hes on keto and this was perfect.
WholeLottaYum says
Thank you so much! I'm really glad you and your husband enjoyed the broccoli soup!
Sabrina says
This was awesome! I only had half and half but otherwise according to directions in instant pot and was do delicious!
Cassy says
Followed the directions for the crockpot version exactly and the cheese seized. Was absolutely awful and gross. Perhaps the advice to turn the heat to high was an error? High heat tends to seize cheese.
Jessie says
This sounds amazing! My dad had a heart attack last summer and has since been having problems with losing blood. To help build it back up he has been frequenting Golden Corral for their chicken liver and has fallen in love with their Broccoli Cheese Soup. So when I told him we could make it at home and save him a little money, he was so excited! I’ve never made it before but I’ve promised him a pot tomorrow. So my question is, can you use frozen or steam bag broccoli or does it have to be fresh?
Jo Warren says
Hi there,
I tried your Broccoli Cheese Soup in my Instant Pot tonight and I can say it was really tasty! I had started looking at your beer Brats in the Instant Pot when I saw this mentioned. It sounded so good, I ended up going to the grocery this morning to pick up the ingredients I didn't have in the house.
You are right about doing mise en place for all the ingredients. Once I got going it was non stop action. The only thing I think I would change would be to add more broccoli, but then I like broccoli.
I do have a question. Once the broccoli has cooked and you have released the pressure and go to add the cream cheese, do you turn the Saute function back on? I found I had to go to Saute to get the cream cheese to melt. It didn't affect adding the heavy cream and the shredded cheese melted right away.
I think this recipe is going into the monthly menu of items I eat.
Thanks, Jo
Carolyn Richardson says
My son lives with me for right now and he loves it when mom cooks up a big pot of “Clean the Fridge” soup/chowder. (I’m an exploring cook) and rarely to never do I cook recipe the same way twice. I’m, most of the time anyway, putting a spin or twist on the original recipe or tweaking the recipe to making for an interesting soup or chowder. Most of the time he just raves about my version of a recipe.
Usually, I try to freeze the leftover soup/chowder for another meal. Penney pincher? Yes ma’am indeed I am. So all that being said since you didn’t mention it in your notes, so my question of course is, can this soup be frozen and for how long would you suggest.
WholeLottaYum says
Clean the fridge soups often make the best kind of soups! I would not freeze broccoli cheese soup since cream doesn't freeze very well and often turns grainy. It should keep in the fridge for up to 5 days if you want to eat it later in the week!
shelene82 says
What is the nutritional value per serving (calories, fat, carbs, fiber, etc.)?
WholeLottaYum says
the instant pot broccoli cheese soup has been updated with the nutritional content. Thanks! Jen
Dan says
How did you come up with those net carbs!? Ours turned out to be 11g.
WholeLottaYum says
Make sure to use brands that have 0 or as close to zero carbs as possible, we generally buy Trader Joes brand and most of their whole fat dairy products are very very low carb. Some of the less expensive brands include fillers to keep the cost down but then it increases the carbs. Many block cheeses are zero carbs, but by chance someone uses pre-shredded cheese it includes starch.