Published 9/15/2022 • Updated 7/18/2023 Try our homemade Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup recipe for an easy soup dupe you can make in your own kitchen.
Broccoli Cheddar Soup (Panera Dupe)
Where are my Panera fans at? This incredible Broccoli Cheddar Soup recipe is for you and it tastes exactly like the one from Panera. In fact, we specifically developed this to be an at-home Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup recipe down to the little florets of broccoli to the thick cheesy base. This broccoli cheddar soup is so delicious served in a bread bowl or in a normal bowl with a giant baguette served next to it!
Ingredients You Need
Great news! This recipe calls for basic ingredients. But don’t worry, it has giant flavor.
Onion: onion is such a great soup starter flavor. It adds depth and savoriness. We used yellow onion, but white works too. Broccoli: this recipe calls for fresh broccoli. We only reccomend using fresh broccoli, so make sure you don’t use frozen! Chicken broth: technically any kind of broth works, but we love the flavor chicken broth adds to this Panera broccoli cheddar soup recipe. Carrots: matchstick carrots add another veggie into this soup, plus a pop of color. Flour: flour is used to help thicken this soup so that it’s nice and luscious. Milk: milk is used to thin the soup out a bit and to add volume. Shredded cheddar cheese: the star of the show is freshly shredded cheddar cheese. The fresher the better. Make sure to buy a block and to shred your own cheese.
How to Thicken Broccoli Cheddar Soup
For this Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup recipe, we used flour to thicken it. In our expert broccoli cheddar soup opinion, a roux tastes so much better than corn starch and does the job to thicken it as well. If you want your soup thicker, you can add more flour, but believe us 1/2 cup should do the trick! Can I swap the flour for a different flour? The only other flour we suggest swapping all-purpose for in this recipe is white whole wheat flour or gluten-free all-purpose flour.
All About the Cheddar
Our #1 tip for this soup is to use freshly grated cheddar cheese. That’s right, we suggest buying a block of yellow cheddar cheese and shredding it yourself. We find that freshly shredded cheese melts and mixes so much better in this soup than pre-shredded cheese. What kind of cheddar cheese should I use? We used sharp yellow cheddar cheese, but you’re more than welcome to use white cheddar cheese or even a cheddar blend.
Serving Suggestion
Did you know that Panera actually sells bread bowls in store?! Genius right? We highly recommend either eating this Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup in a bread bowl or with bread on the side. As my husband would say: “Something about the way the cheesiness tastes with the bread bowl is so much better than other soups.” Yes, that is a direct quote from him. Otherwise, you can absolutely top this soup with something crunchy such as
oyster crackers croutons goldfish saltines
Storage
Let your soup cool completely. Then, transfer it into an airtight container. Store in the fridge for up to 3-5 days.
Can you freeze this soup?
Unfortunately, we don’t recommend freezing this soup for later. The broccoli would likely get very mush.
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