Before the pandemic, I tried lots of broccoli soup recipes at restaurants. Now many restaurants either don’t have their entire menu available or it’s available for pickup but I’m not brave enough to try to get it home in the car! Fortunately, I found this vintage recipe to make at home and it is definitely a keeper!
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this recipe because there is a great deal of cheese in it. One of those cheeses is fontina cheese. I had not made a soup with fontina cheese before, but I found that it is a very rich and creamy cheese and can be substituted for gruyere cheese, which I often use in recipes.
Fontina cheese is excellent in this broccoli soup! However, it is just one of a trio of cheeses. The others are cream cheese and white cheddar. Both the cream cheese and fontina make this soup creamy, and the cheddar cheese is a flavor enhancer. Surprisingly, this soup is not too cheesy.
The vegetables in this soup are finely chopped which is different from my Panera Bread Broccoli Soup copycat recipe. The copycat recipe has chunky vegetables whereas this soup contrasts by having chopped vegetables. For those who donโt really like vegetables that much but want them in their diet, this is the soup for you. I hope you will give it a try because I donโt think you will be disappointed!
| Prep Time | 25 minutes |
| Cook Time | 20 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/2 cups sweet onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
- 1 cup carrot, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon Ground red pepper
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (for gluten-free soup see note below)
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups half and half
- 1 large broccoli head, stems removed and florets chopped
- 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened & cut into small chunks
- 1 8-ounce fontina cheese block, shredded
- 1 4-ounce white cheddar cheese block, shredded
Ingredients
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- In a Dutch oven or other large pot, melt the butter on medium-low heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and carrot and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Then add the garlic, salt, and black and red peppers and cook until fragrant, about 20 seconds.
- Reduce the heat to low and add the flour. Whisk to mix it with the vegetables and cook for about a minute.
- Add the chicken stock slowly and whisk until smooth. Add the half and half and whisk until mixed well. Turn the heat to medium to get the soup hot and then simmer for 15 minutes. Do not boil the soup. Stir occasionally.
- Add the broccoli and cook for 5 more minutes.
- Remove the soup from the heat. Add the cream cheese a few chunks at a time and stir to melt them.
- Add the fontina and cheddar cheeses a little at a time, stirring well after each addition until the cheese melts. If necessary, reheat the soup a little to finalize the melting but do not cook the cheese or it can curdle.
To make this soup gluten-free, substitute 3 tablespoons of gluten-free flour such as Measure for Measure or Cup 4 Cup.ย Gluten-free flour thickens more than regular wheat flour so add one less tablespoon of gluten-free.ย Also, verify that you are using gluten-free brands of cheese and half and half.
To thin very thick soup after refrigeration, add equal amounts of half and half and chicken stock.