This Panera Bread Copycat version of Broccoli Cheddar Soup made in the Instant Pot is so quick and effortless, that making this is easier than even ordering take out and going out to pick it up. This Instant Pot Broccoli Cheddar Soup is a clear favorite in our family!
As the weather is getting cooler, I am looking for more and more soup recipes to warm our souls. Easy as they can get, making soups in the Instant Pot is an instant game changer. Mostly it is dump and go as you would in a slow cooker, but it also gets done so very quickly, that it is ok if you did not plan ahead and decided to make soup for dinner at 4.30 pm. As long as you have the ingredients ready to go, dinner is ready with no fuss.
This Instant Pot Broccoli Cheddar soup does not use anything extra like a flour roux or a corn slurry to thicken it, like most recipes do. So, it is gluten free. I just used an immersion blender to blend in some of the broccoli and carrots together. And a lot of cheese and some heavy cream did the trick to get that creamy consistency.
Tips for the cheese used in this Instant Pot Broccoli Cheddar Soup:
I highly recommend getting cheddar cheese blocks and grating it yourself. It doesn't take that much more time. When the veggies are cooking in the pot, you can quickly grate the cheese in less than 5 mins. The taste and texture is quite something in itself when you do it this way than buying the pre-grated cheese. I used a combination of sharp and medium cheddar for this Broccoli Cheddar Soup to get some depth in flavors. You can just use one kind, if that is what is available. Just use the 5 cups of the one kind, instead of 2 ½ and 21/2 cups of each.
This seems like a lot of soup! What can I do with leftovers?
This soup stays well in the refrigerator for a couple of days. It can also be frozen. I have also used it to make Macaroni and Cheese - just cook some macaroni and mix some of the soup in it till you get the right consistency. It is easy peasy and so delicious!
I highly recommend you try making this soup, sometime, this fall / winter. Your family will thank you for that 🙂
📖 Recipe
Instant Pot Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Ingredients
- 3 cups broccoli florets
- ½ onion diced
- 1 cup grated carrots
- 2 ½ cups grated sharp cheddar 8 oz
- 2 ½ cups grated medium cheddar 8 oz
- 2 tablespoon butter
- salt to taste
- fresh crushed black pepper to taste
- 4 drops hot sauce
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 cups vegetable broth
Don't forget to check out Step-by-step instructions with photos in the body of the post above
Instructions
- Press saute and let the display show "Hot". Add the butter to this.
- Once the butter melts, add the onion and garlic.
- Once the onion has softened (do not let it brown), add the broccoli and carrots to the inner pot. Press Keep Warm / Cancel to turn off Saute mode. Add the vegetable stock to this.
- Close the lid of the Instant Pot. Turn the knob to seal. Press Manual, adjust to High Pressure and adjust time to 5 mins.
- As soon as 5 mins is done and the Instant Pot beeps, turn the seal manually to release ( watch for the hot steam when you do this) and do a Quick Release of pressure.
- Open the Instant Pot and using an immersion blender, blend part of the chunky soup to smoother bits. Keep some of the veggies intact. You can also wait for a few minutes, transfer part of the soup to a blender, blend and pour back to the pot.Add salt, pepper and a few drops of hot sauce.
- Press Saute button again. Pour in the heavy cream and mix well.
- Once it starts bubbling, add the cheese and mix well.
- Keep mixing for 2 mins and switch off the saute setting. You can keep it at Keep Warm mode, till you are ready to serve. But, keep stirring every once in a while to avoid clumping. Also, don't keep it in the Keep Warm mode for more than a few minutes.
Pin this to your favorite Instant Pot Recipes or Soup boards for later!
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