The Best Pressure Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup
This really is the Best Pressure Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup. You’re going to love how easy this great-tasting soup is to make and serve. With a 1-minute pressure cook time, you’ll want to make it again and again, no matter the season!
My family prefers soups with at least a little texture. So I adapted a traditional creamy broccoli cheese soup by leaving pieces of broccoli and carrot in the soup, which also gives it a prettier color. This soup is classic comfort food with is creamy, cheesy texture. You’ll also love at how quick this soup is to make and serve!
This Pressure Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup is one of the most popular recipes in my cookbook, The Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook: 200 Fast and Foolproof Recipes for Every Brand of Electric Pressure Cooker. When my cookbook was released, my good friend Melissa shared the recipe on Bless This Mess and said “it is the stuff soup dreams are made of.”
It really is that good!
Making Pressure Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup in the Instant Pot
An Instant Pot is one of the most popular brands of electric pressure cookers. They are easy to use and your Instant Pot can help you create this delicious Pressure Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup! With the small vegetable pieces, this soup cooks quickly. From start to finish you can have it on your table in about 30 minutes.
Customize Your Soup
This soup is a pretty forgiving recipe, and you can easily make adjustments to your taste. For those that prefer smoother, creamier soups, you can use an immersion blender to smooth out the veggies. Or, on the other hand, add more chopped broccoli or carrots without changing the cook time. For those that love spicy food, add some red pepper flakes to give it an extra kick.
However you decide to make it, don’t skip the saute step! Since it’s such a simple soup, you need the richer flavor you get from browning the onion and garlic.
Like most soups, the flavor improves if you prepare it ahead of time and allow the flavors to blend for a few hours. Honestly, my favorite way to make this soup is to cook it the night before and warm just what I need the next evening for dinner.
To warm, you can use your pressure cooker on the saute setting. (And, of course, there’s always the stove top.) Either way, you will want to keep an eye on your soup and don’t let it come to a boil. (If it does boil, it’s not a big deal, it just might affect the texture after adding the half and half.)
Making a Big Batch of Broccoli Cheese Soup
Since it’s a meatless meal, this soup is a great option when you’re on a budget! It’s easily doubled if you’re feeding a crowd or if you want lots of leftovers.
When doubling, you can add half of the chicken broth after pressure cooking to cut down on the time it takes for the pot to come to pressure.
Can I Freeze This Soup?
Short answer—Yes, you can! My friend Genene, who helps run our Electric Pressure Cooker Facebook Group, makes this soup often and keeps it in her freezer.
Longer answer—freezing soups with dairy in them can sometimes affect the texture of the reheated soup. And the vegetables won’t be quite as crisp. I love this soup regardless, but if you’re sensitive to texture, this is something you’ll want to be aware of.
Make Lactose-Free or Vegan Broccoli Cheese Soup
This Broccoli Cheese Soup is already a great meatless meal, so there are just a few substitutions you’ll need to make this fit a vegetarian or vegan diet. This winter, my daughter hosted a party where some guests followed a dairy-free diet. She made a dairy-free, vegan version of this Broccoli Cheese Soup using vegetable broth, Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks, Unsweetened Better Half Creamer, and Daiya Dairy Free Cheddar.
I had a little of the vegan soup and was amazed at how well the flavors transferred over from the real, full-dairy alternative.
What to Serve with Broccoli Cheese Soup
Bread! You can serve this in a bread bowl, with a crusty loaf of sour dough, or with a classic breadstick. My grandsons also love to eat it with crackers and a grilled cheese sandwich.
If you’re trying to cut carbs, soup and salad is a classic combination that will help you maximize your veggies.
More Instant Pot Vegetable Soup Recipes
Here are some of our other favorite vegetable soup recipes to make in an Instant Pot / electric pressure cooker:
- Instant Pot Minestrone Soup is fresh, healthy, and packed with beans, pasta, and garden produce like tomatoes, zucchini, and corn.
- Instant Pot Weight Loss Vegetable Soup is loaded with fresh carrots, broccoli, squash, spinach, and more.
- Instant Pot Corn Chowder is a perfect light and refreshing soup to enjoy on a warm summer night.
- Instant Pot Cauliflower Soup from The Busted Oven flavored with thyme and lemon and thickened with potatoes.
The Best Pressure Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup diced onion
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cans 14.5 fluid ounces each reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 4 cups bite-size broccoli florets*
- 1 cup matchstick carrots
- 1/2 teaspoon salt plus more as needed
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper plus more as needed
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- ¼ cup cold water
- 2 cups half and half
- 2 cups grated Cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Select Sauté to preheat the pressure cooking pot. When hot, add the butter and onion. Sauté for about 3 minutes until tender. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute more. Stir in the chicken broth, broccoli, carrots, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.
- Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and 1 minute cook time.
- When the cook time ends, turn off the pressure cooker. Use a quick pressure release. When the valve drops, carefully remove the lid.
- In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch and cold water until smooth. Select Sauté and add the slurry to the pot, stirring constantly until the soup comes to a boil and thickens.
- Turn off the pressure cooker. Gradually stir in the half-and-half. Add the Cheddar a handful at a time, stirring until it melts. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.
Made this again last week! I didn’t have half and half, so just used half heavy cream and half whole milk. Turned out perfectly! Yummy on a cold day (or any day really)! : ) It is so easy and delicious! One of my favorites. Love your recipes – it is my go to IP book!
Thanks for the rave review Kim! So fun to hear you love my cookbook. It’s been a while since I made this recipe. I need to make it again soon. Thanks for sharing you tip.
We’ve been getting our floors resurfaced this week so I haven’t had much time to be in the kitchen and/or make meals. Luckily I was able to pull this soup together in no time and it turned out PERFECT. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Amelia – good luck with the floors!
Personally, I like a more blended broccoli soup, so I found that by pulsing it with an immersion blender and skimping a bit on the cream, I could skip the corn starch step. Speeds up an already quick and easy dinner!
Thanks for sharing your tips Kallee – sounds like a great way to change it up.
When I made the soup it came out great. It was cheesy thick and tasted great.
I put the soup in containers to cool before i put into the refrigerator.
As it cooled the mixture became watery. it lost the cheesy thickness mix it originally had.
What would cause this?
It still tastes good but very runny.
Hi Paul – I haven’t had this problem before so I Google and this post had some good information https://cheftalk.com/threads/thick-cream-soup-turning-watery-why.94774/
I made it evaporated milk and it turned out great…I use that for all my creamy soups.
Good to know evaporated milk is a good substitute – thanks Beverly!
the vegies will be soft right? this is the first time I’m making soup in my cooker and i don’t want crunchy vegies
Hi Rebecca – use the veggies will be soft and if you want them even softer, you can use the saute setting to cook the soup a little longer until they’re to your liking.
Can I use frozen broccoli in this recipe?
Hi Julie – yes, you can use frozen broccoli with no changes. Enjoy!
Wow just made this soup so easy and so good. Thank you
That’s great – thanks Julie! It really couldn’t get much easier.
I have cream cheese, sour cream, greek yogurt, buttermilk and 2% milk but no half and half. With this coronavirus scare and being health compromised and panic buying in stores, is there a substitutie you can suggest? Thank you.
Hi Joan – you could add 4 ounces of cream cheese, cubed, after thickening with the cornstarch. When the cream cheese is completely melted into the broth, add the 2% milk and cheese. Or, you could also use the 2% milk and then stir in some sour cream or greek yogurt are adding the cheddar. Enjoy!
Oh my but this is the best soup ever! I didn’t have any half & half so I used half 35% cream and half whole milk – a little more creamy than you envisioned but de-lish! Adding it to my faves for sure!
So nice to hear you loved it – thanks Trish!
Well today was the day. It was raining and I love soup when it rains . The only changes were the cheese I had was cubed Colby jack and chai seeds. I purred the soup a little . It was fantastic! Loved it! Thanks for the tips.
That’s great – thanks Rosalinda!
how can I substitute the corn starch? I am eating low carb
Hi Maria – I found this article that’s helpful https://perfectketo.com/low-carb-cornstarch-substitute/
Sorry but what is half and half in the recipe?
Hi Paula – is half cream and half milk. It has a 10 to 12% fat content.
My crackpot express doesn’t go to 1mon Do I cook it at 5?
Hi Renee – no, you’ll set it for 5 minutes, but stay close by and when the timer counts down to 4 minutes, hit the cancel button or unplug the pc and do a quick release.
If I have leftovers that have been thickened with cornstarch, I find that they break when re-heated.
Do you have an option of thickening with flour for this recipe?
If you prefer not to use cornstarch, you can thicken it with flour instead. Gold Medal Wondra would be a perfect alternative for this soup https://www.goldmedalflour.com/our-flour/wondra-quick-mixing-all-purpose-flour/
This is one of my favorites in your book too, Barbara. I love having it in the refrigerator so I can grab a cup of it for lunch…delicious-and so easy!!!
Thanks so much Carol!
As a family of 5 with 5 year old twins I thought we may have some issue with this soup. The fussiest one had two bowls and they want me to make it again today! Thank you!
So glad it was a hit – thanks Sharon!
How many serving is this recipe?
At the bottom, where the nutrition info is, it says it Serves 6.
How many cups of soup per serving
about 1 1/2 cups per serving
Thank you very much!!