Home › Recipe List › Soups and Stews › Copycat Panera Broccoli Cheese Soup Recipe
Posted by Aimee374 comments Published: Oct 21, 2019Last Updated: Nov 2, 2023
Jump to Recipe Jump to Video
Copycat Panera Broccoli Cheese Soup is ready in less than 30 minutes! The perfect bowl of comfort food without leaving your house!
Love easy soup recipes? Be sure to try our Chicken Taco Soup for a family favorite dinner. Or try our hearty Lasagna Soup recipe!
Table of Contents
Copycat Panera Recipes
Ingredient Notes
Step by Step Instructions
More Copycat Panera Recipes
Serving Suggestions
More Easy Dinner Ideas
Copycat Panera Broccoli Cheese Soup Recipe
Copycat Panera Recipes
My family doesn’t love traditional fast food. Which I suppose is a good thing, except when I’m looking to just pick up a quick, on the go meal I’m limited by their taste buds!
Fortunately (or not) for us, our Panera Bread has a drive through, and it’s one of the “fast food” choices we all love. Except it’s pricey. They don’t have a dollar menu!
My goal with my blog has been to create a database of recipes that my family loves.
Things like Starbucks Lemon Loaf, Panera Mac and Cheese, and Hostess Cupcakes. If my kids are craving it, I can probably recreate it!
With today’s Broccoli Cheese Soup recipe, we may never have to actually go to Panera again.
When I can make Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup at home, I know I’m saving us some money and a trip out.
Ingredient Notes
From start to finish, this Copycat Panera Broccoli Cheese Soup recipe takes less than 30 minutes.
Real talk: It will probably take less time to make this soup at home than it would to get everyone in the car and drive to Panera. Not to mention the drive back home!
Broccoli: You can always use fresh broccoli to make Panera Broccoli Cheese Soup, but it’s ok if you want to reach into the freezer for a bag of frozen broccoli florets. We’ve all done it a time or two and they’ll be just as delicious in this soup!
Broth: Keep this soup vegetarian by using vegetable broth in place of the chicken broth.
My Panera Broccoli Cheese Soup recipe makes 3-4 decent sized bowls of soup…but you can easily double the recipe if you have hungry eaters, and this is your main dish.
You could also serve this soup as a side alongside sandwiches. Try my Turkey Cheddar Sliders or, if you want to mix favorites from different restaurants, Copycat Chick-fil-A Chicken Salad Sandwiches.
Step by Step Instructions
Want less chunks in your soup? Use an immersion blender to smooth it out! Our family loved this soup, it’s a great recipe for busy weeknights!
Today’s Broccoli Cheddar Soup can also be made in the Instant Pot!Dinner in under 30 minutes! Loaded with vegetables and cheese, you’ll love this easy, creamyInstant Pot Broccoli Cheddar Soup Recipe! It’s the BEST!
Slow cooker: Use our slow cooker broccoli cheddar soup recipe for a great, fix it and forget it meal!
More Copycat Panera Recipes
Does your family love Panera as much as mine does? Lucky for you, I have a whole list of recipes I’ve recreated from Panera.
In addition to the Broccoli Cheese Soup, our family loves
Panera Mac and Cheese
Orange Scones
Kitchen Sink Cookies
Strawberry Pecan Salad.
Serving Suggestions
Easy, butteryBeer Breadgoes perfect with this soup! Also great to cube into bite sized pieces and use for dips!
Are you looking for a fluffy, delicious Dinner Roll? TheseNo Knead Garlic Parmesan Dinner Rollswill please the whole family!
Easiest side dish ever. Whip up a batch of these Puff Pastry Bread Sticks to dunk in your soup!
You can also go to most bakery sections in the grocery store and find a great homemade bread bowl!
1cupshredded carrotsI used matchsticks that I cut into half inch pieces
2 1/2-3cupsbroccoli floretschopped small
1 ½cupschicken broth
1cupmilkI use skim/fat free
1cupheavy whipping cream
¼cupall-purpose flour
1 ½teaspoonskosher salt
½teaspoonblack pepper
pinchof crushed red pepper flakesor more as desired
2cupsshredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
In a large pot over medium high heat, melt butter. Add in onions, carrots and broccoli. Cook to soften about 5 minutes (may be more or less depending on the size vegetables you cut).
Slowly add in broth, milk, and cream. Sprinkle with flour and add salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Continue stirring and heating over medium heat until thickened. This will take about 10-15 minutes.
Once thick, add cheese and stir until melted and smooth. Serve soup and enjoy!
Notes
Easily double the ingredients to make more of this delicious soup!
Use a good quality cheddar cheese for best results. And shred the cheese yourself for the creamiest results.
“Panera will absolutely be serving longtime guest favorites like sourdough on sandwiches and via its iconic sourdough bread bowl and other longtime favs like French onion soup, broccoli cheddar soup, Toasted Frontega Chicken sandwich, mac & cheese, the kitchen sink cookie and more,” a Panera spokesperson clarified, ...
The Unhealthiest Panera Soup: Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Besides its 11 grams of saturated fat, this soup is suffused with sodium. In a 1-cup serving, expect 46% of the daily recommended limit of 2,300 milligrams. "Diets high in sodium can lead to high blood pressure," says Michelle Rauch, MS, RDN.
Flour: This broccoli Cheddar soup starts with a roux made with all-purpose flour and butter. Milk: A cup of milk is whisked into the roux, creating a rich and velvety soup. Stock: Use store-bought or homemade chicken stock. Vegetables: You'll need an onion, carrots, celery, and (of course) broccoli.
Is broccoli soup good for you? Most of the time, broccoli cheese soup isn't the healthiest option since it has lots of cheese and heavy cream. This version is lightened up with evaporated skim milk and less cheese. It also uses extra vegetables that are blended to create some of the creaminess in the soup.
Broccoli also can be the culprit behind a slew of stomach-related symptoms. Not only does the veggie — or more specifically, the intestinal bacteria that breaks the fibrous content down — cause gas, but that gas can actually be painful, too. Because the gas expands the intestines, its lining and walls become stretched.
It may taste homemade, but that Panera soup wasn't actually prepared by the workers at your local shop. "The soups are made at a factory/plant/etc., flash-frozen, shipped to us, and we thaw it out in what's called a thermalizer, essentially a soup-thawer," says one former employee.
If it's been a minute since you've had Panera Bread's Broccoli Cheddar Soup, let me tell you everything that they do right: this soup is velvety, lightweight, and smooth; the broccoli florets are perfectly sized and many come whole; and the addition of shredded carrots bring out a whole new depth of flavor that sets it ...
The unhealthiest lunch order at Panera is…the new Bacon Mac and Cheese Bread Bowl. At Panera, you can order any of the soups or mac and cheese in a bread bowl, which is a bowl made entirely of Panera's Artisinal Sourdough Bread.
The next time you find yourself going for the infamous Panera broccoli cheddar soup, try out the cream of chicken and wild rice instead. This healthier option is lower in calories, fat, and carbs, but the flavors are just as satisfying. Plus, the long grain and wild rice are great for protein and healthy carbs.
Your soup may become grainy if the cheese or dairy curdles. With a recipe like the one that follow you shouldn't have trouble because the cheese is added as a finishing component, off heat. But to avoid “breaking” the dairy while reheating (or with other dairy-rich soups), take it low and slow.
If heated too high, you risk clumping and if too low, not melting properly. With soup, you might be able to fix it with an immersion blender, or you might not. At a temperature of 150 or so, the protein bonds in the cheese break down and as a result, too much fo the moisture escapes too quickly.
The temperature you cook Broccoli Cheese Soup at is key to making sure it doesn't end up grainy or curdled. Medium heat is best for dairy-based soups so it doesn't boil and curdle.
Broccoli helps in protecting the blood vessels from any kind of damage. It contains fatty acids and fibers which regulate blood pressure in the body. Sulforaphane present in broccoli has anti-inflammatory properties preventing and reversing the damage to the linings of blood vessels.
Liver Detoxification: Broccoli contains compounds, such as glucosinolates and sulfur, which support the liver's detoxification process. These compounds help activate enzymes in the liver that assist in detoxifying and eliminating harmful substances from the body.
Indicates that the sodium (salt) content of this item is higher than the total daily recommended limit (2,300 mg). High sodium intake can increase blood pressure and risk of heart disease and stroke.
On June 24, 2022, Panera parent company Blount Fine Foods issued a voluntary limited recall of Panera at Home Southwest Corn Chowder. The soup is described by Panera as being a creamy potato and corn soup with roasted corn, poblano peppers, and black beans.
Unfortunately, Panera Bread has discontinued its 10 Vegetable soup, but it had 100 calories for 1 ½ cups. My own copycat recipe only has 95 calories for 1 ½ cups. Is Panera Bread 10 Vegetable Soup Gluten Free? No, it contained barley and was not gluten-free.
The soup "may be contaminated with extraneous material, specifically pieces of gray nitrile glove," the agency, part of the Department of Agriculture, said in a statement Thursday. The batch was shipped to stores in Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Texas, the agency said.
Introduction: My name is Fr. Dewey Fisher, I am a powerful, open, faithful, combative, spotless, faithful, fair person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.