Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup is the perfect soup for this cold wintery weather that even your kids will love and it takes just a few minutes of prep.
Crockpot Broccoli Cheese Soup
Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup is one of those soups you know isn’t technically super healthy for you (I mean let’s be honest 12 ounces of cheese!) but you can instead focus on the “heeeyyy it has broccoli and it is a soup!” part of it instead.
Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup has been a favorite around our house since the kids were born. Getting them to eat greens was always such a headache so I would cook up a batch of this soup and puree it entirely (I don’t add that to the instructions because I figure if you’re making it you know it has broccoli, haha). 
Bread Bowl + broccoli cheese soup = Perfection
The kids taste the cheese and are happy and I’m happy knowing I got them to eat the “little trees” that they say they hate so much. Then I also treat myself to a bowl of it inside a bread bowl.
Let’s talk bread bowls for a second here. I’m team sourdough and I also spread just a bit of butter on the inside of the scooped out bowl and toast it at 350 for 10 or so minutes until it is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. 
Tips for this Crockpot Broccoli Cheese Soup
There isn’t a whole lot to discuss about the making of this soup. It is pretty user-friendly. But here are a few tips
- If you do want more green pieces (especially if you’re serving it for company you can reserve 1 cup of the broccoli and at the end of the cooking process go ahead and steam that broccoli in the microwave for 2 minutes (glass bowl covered with a damp paper towel).
- Add the broccoli to the top of the slow cooker and press down gently to just cover it with the soup. Serve it into the bowls and top with more of that steamed broccoli if you would like and some tiny cubes of cheddar.
- Speaking of the cheddar cheese, use a block not the pre-shredded kind. The pre-shredded cheese you buy at the grocery store is packaged with an anti-clumping agent which will prevent it from melting as smoothly as we would like.
Looking for more crispy slow cooker meals?
- Crisp and Juicy Slow Cooker Chicken
- Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken
- Slow Cooker Bacon Garlic Pork Loin
- Crispy Slow Cooker Turkey
- Crispy Slow Cooker Corned Beef
- Crispy Cracklin’ Pork Shoulder
Or maybe slow cooker soups?
- Slow Cooker Ham and Potato Soup
- Slow Cooker Ham and White Bean Soup
- Slow Cooker Creamy Minestrone (with no cream!)
Tools Used In This Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup:
Slow Cooker: Love this slow cooker and how programmable it is, it has been a workhorse for me… until…
My New Slow Cooker: This recipe was made in this slow cooker. For larger roasts I also brown the meat in the insert and not lose a bunch of the flavor by transferring the meat and leaving the browned bits behind. If you’re thinking of a new slow cooker, consider it if your budget is open.
Evaporated Milk: Different than condensed milk, evaporated milk is actually milk with half of the water content removed. This makes for a thicker, creamier milk but without the high fat content of heavy cream. Condensed milk is similar to evaporated milk in that the water is removed from the milk, but the difference is about 40% of the content of that can of condensed milk is sugar. Not the best fit for this recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cans evaporated milk 12 ounce cans
- 6 cups vegetable stock chicken stock is fine too
- 6 cups broccoli diced into ½ inch pieces
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 ounces cream cheese half a block
- 12 ounces sharp cheddar cheese cut into cubes
- Mini bread bowls for serving optional
Instructions
- Add the onion, garlic, Kosher salt, black pepper, evaporated milk, stock and broccoli to your slow cooker.
- Cook on high for 2 hours or low for 4 hours.
- In a small bowl mash the flour and the butter together to make a paste.
- To the slow cooker add in the butter/flour paste, cream cheese and half the cheddar.
- Cook for an additional half hour.
- Whisk really thoroughly and add in the remaining cheddar cheese.
- Whisk again and serve (preferably in a bread bowl which makes all soups even more awesome.
Nutrition
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I made this yesterday for my wife and I and I used shredded cheese and I added potatoes and it came out great. I would would make this again.
We made today and followed Sabrina’s recipe to a T. It was ok but not as tasty and creamy as I thought it would be for the amount of time it took to prepare this soup. I used Tillamook Medium Cheddar Cheese from Costco as I had a large block. Cooked 4 hours on high. The sour dough bread bowls were good.
I haven’t tried this recipe yet and am wondering if the finished soup will freeze well.
Honestly just seemed to not have much flavor and it was soooo runny and brocolli took much longer than 2 hours to cook it was still extremely crunchy at that time.
Great recipe but cooking time is deff not 2 1/2 hours… by 2 1/2 hours the broccoli was still VERY crunchy. Even the small tiny pieces. We had to eat this the next day for dinner because I was under the impression it would have been done by 6.. (started at 3) it wasn’t done until 10:30pm
Oh no, I’m so sorry. Sounds like maybe my slow cooker runs warmer than yours. I appreciate your patience to have to wait to eat it for dinner the next day.
I was grocery shopping with my 7 year old and he asked for broccoli cheese soup!?!?! Heck yes i’ll make that! This recipe looked easy enough!
My husband did the broccoli chopping. My son did the stock, evaporated milk, chopped the garlic and onion in the chopper and BAM it went in the crockpot… 2 hours wasn’t enough to get the broccoli quite done… 2.5 hours did the job.
Soup is DELICIOUS. Looks just like the picture and the whole family loves it! Thank you
Can I use frozen broccoli?
I haven’t tested it using frozen but my gut tells me it’ll release too much liquid while cooking and your soup might not thicken up. If you decide to try anyway, I’d love to know how it turns out.
I made this soup a couple of weeks ago. It was absolutely delicious! I actually have leftovers in the freezer?? Thanks for the recipe!
You’re welcome!
How many will this feed?
8
I made this in the morning, then went shopping with my grandkids. Came home dragging ( did I mention shopping with the grandkids?). I was so happy it was ready for the finishing steps. I did have to add a little extra thickener. It was a hit, my grandkids devoured it. No crisp broccoli issue here. Wonder if some of those slowcookers didn’t seal as well as others?
Thanks, Verna! I get you on the shopping part tiring you out, especially with kids! So glad you all enjoyed it!
Not cheesey enough broccoli was still really crunchy and it was way to thin when it should have been thick and creamy. It tasted ok probably won’t be making this again though.
Did you use better than bouillon vegetable?
Yes 🙂
Will this still cook the same if all ingredients go in at once?
You really need the slurry at the end to thicken it. It won’t have that same effect added in the beginning, sorry.
I used my ninja to chop the brocolli so it’s little
For my man whose on a soft food diet I’ll let you know how it turns out but smells good as it’s cooking
I was so excited for this to be my first dish in my new slow cooker. Followed the directions exactly and it’s nothing like the picture. It is white and not golden but the worst part is it didnt thicken at all. It’s just a runny, white tasteless mess. ?
Oh no 🙁 Did you change any of the ingredients listed? If you’re interested, you can email me at contact @ dinnerthendessert.com and we can troubleshoot to try and figure out what happened.
Why do you delete bad reviews? Are you really that afraid of criticism?
If anyone reads this before the author deletes it, be sure to cook the broccoli much longer than they it says to. After making this, the broccoli was still crunchy and unappetizing.
This recipe dodges getting one star because the flavor was ok. Not great, but ok.
I’m not sure why you’d think I’d delete bad reviews. I’m open to trying to figure out what can corrected on either side. I just want everyone to have a great recipe 🙂 Were you using a liner in your slow cooker or does your slow cooker usually cook recipes in the recommended time? I’d be happy to trouble shoot the problem with you if you want, email me at contact @ dinnerthendessert.com
Just awful! I followed the recipe to a tee and after 4 hours on low the broccoli was not even cooked. I’m sorry, but soup should not be crunchy. And minutes to the prepare??? Try an hour and a half. Granted, I’m not very fast at chopping, but 6 cups of broccoli takes a long time to prep. Will NOT be wasting my time to make this again.
So sorry you had issues with the timing. I’d be happy to trouble shoot with you if you want to email me at contact @ dinnerthendessert.com
My soup has been cooking and I feel like I have too much onion and it’s not thickening and my broccoli isn’t soft yet 🙁
Oh no! So sorry I’m just now seeing this. How did it turn out?
Use a food chopper next time
I had my 7 year helping me make this taking our time and it maybe took us 10mins to have everything ready and in the crockpot.
due you have a recipe for corn chowder? I did make the cream of broccoli soup,and it was delicious Thank You so much for your great recipes
So glad you loved it! I don’t have a corn chowder yet but there are many other slow cooker soups recipes on the site to try until I do 🙂
I had cream of broccoli soup in Solvang. I am ready to try this recipe. thank you.
It’s so delicious! Once you try it, I’d love for you to come back and let me know what you thought!
Well I’m going to make this week and I’ll write back with the family review. Looks good it’s been cold in North Carolina this soup will work perfectly. I follow on on tumblr it was dinnerthendessert submitted to guardians-of-the-food who shared your recipe.
As always,
Tushae
Yay, so glad you found me! This meal will be perfect for keeping warm in the cold weather! I look forward to hearing back from you!
If I halve the recipe, is the cooking time the same?
Is your slow cooker smaller or are you just looking to make a smaller quantity for less people? If the slow cooker is smaller keep the cooking time the same, if it is a larger one I would cut back by an hour.
This looks so delicious – and perfect for cozying up with for the ice storm this weekend!
Definitely! Stay safe!
Cooler weather makes this a *must* make! I love how you used the slow cooker to do the work for us!
Thank you Laura!
This looks really great! Perfect during these cold days. What a great idea to use evaporated milk — never thought of that!
That looks delicious! One of my favorite soups – I need to try your slow cooker version!
Thanks Kimberly!
Whoa… that’s a crazy good looking broccoli cheddar soup!
Thank you Amanda!