Cream of Broccoli Soup is an easy, healthy soup recipe that is perfect for a light lunch or serve it as a dinner side next to your main dish!
Rich and creamy Broccoli Cheddar Soup is such a popular Soup you’ll find on practically any cafe or diner menu, and this soup is the lighter version. For another wonderful soup to warm you up, give my Zucchini Soup a try!
Why You’ll Love This Soup?
- Healthy soup made with simple ingredients that’s ready to eat in under an hour.
- Easily made ahead of time because it stores and freezes well.
Sabrina’s Cream of Broccoli Soup Recipe
This lighter, lesser known soup has all the delicious broccoli flavor and creamy texture you love with a fraction of the calories. When you hear a vegetable soup recipe with the word “cream” in it, you might immediately think it’s not actually very healthy but with this soup recipe you’d be pleasantly surprised. This soup is packed with nutrients from fresh veggies and even though it’s incredibly creamy, it’s not made with heavy cream or cheese. This soup is so healthy you could sub it for Roasted Broccoli as a dinner side and it tastes so good, you might get requests for broccoli soup every night.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 yellow onion , diced
- 1 cup celery , diced
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 cups broccoli , diced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons parsley , minced
Instructions
- Add butter to a large heavy dutch oven on medium heat.
- Add in onion and celery, stir to coat and cook for 5-6 minutes until softened.
- Add in garlic, stir and cook for 30 seconds.
- Stir in chicken broth, salt, black pepper, thyme, oregano, bay leaves and bring to a simmer.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 30 minutes.
- Add broccoli to the pot, stir well and cook for 5 minutes.
- Using an immersion blender, puree until smooth.
- Serve with an olive oil drizzle, heavy cream drizzle and minced parsley with a side of crusty bread.
Nutrition
Want to save this recipe? Create a free account to easily save your favorite recipes
Note from Sabrina
Sometimes to make this soup creamier, I add heavy cream at the end. You can also add whole milk but keep in mind it could be a bit watery since this soup doesn’t use a flour roux base. A better substitute for heavy cream would be coconut milk or half and half. Do not add low fat milk, nonfat milk, or other non-dairy milk without a flour roux.
Table of contents
About this Recipe
Homemade Cream of Broccoli Soup is made with simple ingredients and takes almost no time to prep and cook. The most prep work you’ll do is chopping the onions, celery, and fresh broccoli florets. The base of the soup is basically broth that’s simmered with herbs so it gets extra flavorful. The broccoli cooks in minutes and then all you have to do is puree it and it’s ready to be served.
What is Cream of Broccoli Soup?
Cream of Broccoli soup is an old-fashioned soup recipe that often gets overlooked for richer, cheesier veggie soups. It is made with broccoli, broth, and herbs for a garden fresh taste. The “cream” part is from pureed broccoli instead of dairy so it is much healthier. It should be noted that this soup is not a substitute for thicker canned condensed soups in cooking, instead it’s meant to be eaten as its own dish.
Ingredients
- Broccoli: Broccoli has so much flavor all on its own and goes so well in creamy pureed soups like this one. Since this soup is getting pureed, you could use frozen broccoli, but I like to use fresh broccoli especially when it’s on sale.
- Butter: Unlike a lot of creamy soups, the cream in this soup comes from butter and pureeing everything at the end. Just using butter keeps the soup a bit lighter but still gives it a deliciously silky, creamy flavor.
- Aromatics: All great soups start with a blend of aromatic veggies sauteed in fat to build the foundation that all the other flavors are built on! This soups keeps it simple with onions, garlic, and celery so the broccoli flavors can shine.
- Chicken Broth: I love to use a roasted chicken broth concentrate for extra flavor. However, you can absolutely trade it for a good-quality vegetarian broth if you do not want to use a meat broth.
- Dried Herbs: This recipe uses dried herbs to make it easy and inexpensive to make. Oregano, bay leaf, and thyme all have a woodsy light floral flavor that makes this soup taste like it’s fresh from the garden.
- Heavy Cream: The heavy cream is actually used just as a garnish in this creamy broccoli soup, similar to how you would add sour cream to chili. It adds a cool finish and a hint of rich cream flavor without making this soup heavy.
- Garnishes: The olive oil adds a little fat to this light soup and the fresh parsley gives it a bright, almost citrus flavor to enhance the broccoli. A squeeze of lemon juice works well with this soup too.
Can this be made ahead of time?
Yes, this soup is perfect to make ahead of time! It stays good in the fridge for up to five day so you can reheat it as you are craving it or portion it out into a few weekday lunches. This soup can also be made in the slow cooker, so you can make it ahead and enjoy it for dinner later. It lasts in the freezer for up to 6 months, if stored properly. Pull it out the night before to thaw and then reheat on the stove or in 30 second increments in the microwave, stirring each time, until you get the desired temperature you are looking for.
Pairing Suggestions
Cream of Broccoli makes a great side dish all year round. The bright green color looks stunning with simple garnishes like a drizzle of cream and fresh chives. It makes a quick healthy meal served with a Winter Pear Salad topped with Roasted Winter Vegetables. It’s made without flour so it is naturally Gluten Free and good for Keto or Low Carb Diets, but it also makes a yummy soup to dip Grilled Cheese Sandwiches in!
How to Store
- Store: Cool soup before storing and don’t leave it at room temperature for more than 2 hours. Keep leftover soup in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- Reheat: Reheat this broccoli soup on the stove top for best flavor and texture. Simmer over medium heat stirring occasionally until heated through.
- Freeze: This soup can be frozen for up to 6 months in an airtight container. Thaw overnight or reheat from frozen. If it’s too thin, simmer uncovered until it reduces and thickens.
Slow Cooker Method
- Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Saute the onion and celery in the butter for 5-6 minutes until softened.
- Stir in the garlic and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant.
- Transfer the onion and celery mixture to a slow cooker.
- Stir in the chicken broth, salt, black pepper, thyme, oregano, bay leaves, and broccoli.
- Covered and cook on low for 4-6 hours or high for 2-3 hours, until broccoli is tender and cooked.
- Puree broccoli with an immersion blender then serve garnished with oil, cream, and parsley.
Frequent Questions
Cream of Broccoli Soup often gets confused with the more popular Broccoli Cheddar Soup. Broccoli Cheese Soup is made with cheese and Cream of Broccoli does not have any cheese. The creamy part of this broccoli soup is from pureeing the broccoli and Broccoli Cheddar Soup has whole pieces of broccoli. Finally, this soup just uses cream for a garnish while most versions of Broccoli Cheese Soup are made with heavy cream or milk as the base of the soup.
Either fresh broccoli or frozen broccoli can be used in this soup because it’s all pureed at the end anyway. If you do use frozen broccoli, try to use a kind with less stems and more florets because stems tend to be tougher and not as sweet. You do not need to thaw the frozen broccoli before using.
Both a high-power stand blender and an immersion blender can be used to puree this creamy soup, and they each have pros and cons. The immersion blender is easier to use because you can just stick it in the pot without dirtying any more dishes, but the soup doesn’t get quite as creamy and silky. A stand blender will give you ultra smooth soup that is almost silky but you’ll have to blend in batches and leave room for steam to build from the hot soup.
Variations
- Cauliflower: This can easily become Cream of Cauliflower soup if you swap in cauliflower florets for the broccoli. For a deep caramelized flavor, try Roasted Cauliflower! Using half cauliflower and half broccoli would work too because they taste delicious together.
- Potatoes: Make this a bit heartier by using 2 cups diced potatoes for 2 cups broccoli. Russet potatoes, red potatoes, white potatoes, or Yukon gold potatoes, or sweet potatoes would all work in this soup. Thin skin potatoes like red potatoes don’t have to be peeled first but you should peel russet potatoes or sweet potatoes if you use them.
- Cheese: Make this into a Cream of Broccoli Cheese soup by adding some freshly shredded cheese after the soup is pureed. A classic combo is broccoli and cheddar cheese but other shredded cheese like Gruyere cheese, Colby jack cheese, Gouda cheese, or Swiss cheese, or a blend of cheeses would taste delicious too! Garnish with cheese like freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
- Vegetarian: You do not have to use chicken broth in this soup if you prefer to make it vegetarian. When swapping veggie broth for chicken broth, you want to use a good quality stock that’s low sodium. I really like Better than Bouillon because it has a lot of flavor and you can always add extra if you want.
Related Recipes
More Soups to Warm You Up!
Loved it!! Used what I had at home and it came out perfect
Love this soup especially in the Fall! Thank you Megan and thanks for the five star review.