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Healthy Broccoli Cheddar Soup is low calorie and made in 30 minutes with minimal ingredients. A great vegetarian soup that’s also gluten free and can easily be made dairy free.
Who doesn’t love a broccoli and cheese soup recipe on a 110 degree day? Me! A friend from Puerto Rico told me once that eating hot food on a hot day will make you feel cooler. I’ve never experienced this but hey, I keep trying to see if it will happen. One can always hope!
There’s nothing better in my opinion than a bowl of comforting broccoli and cheese soup served with my low carb bread recipe or to go with a healthy BLT salad, a sandwich or low calorie chicken salad.
Soups are a great way to eat more veggies especially if you’re a picky veggie eater and don’t like to eat your vegetables. It’s a great way to sneak in those nutrients and making it taste good. This vegetarian vegetable soup and healthy tomato soup are great for adding more nutrients too!
Broccoli and Cheese Soup
This is the best broccoli cheddar soup recipe! Not only is it made with healthy, nutrient dense ingredients but it’s also made with less fat making it lower calorie. It has incredible flavor and comes together effortlessly in 30 minutes!
A great soup to meal prep ahead of time and freeze for a day when you don’t have time to prep your veggies. You know those days will happen when you just run out of time or don’t feel like prepping a bunch of veggies. That’s when having low calorie soup recipes stashed in your freezer will really save you!
Ingredients
- Broccoli
- Leeks
- Garlic
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Vegetable Broth
- Low Moisture Cheddar Cheese
- Salt, Pepper, Red Pepper Flakes
How to Make Keto Broccoli Cheddar Soup
While healthy broccoli cheese soup seems like a healthy choice on the surface, you do need to caution the ones you get at restaurants and even healthier restaurants like Panera are not the best choice for fat loss.
They use a lot of oil (and unhealthy, inflammatory oils like canola), salt as well as a ton of cheese and it’s likely not low moisture cheese. This adds up to a lot of extra calories!
This recipe is a healthy broccoli soup recipe for weight loss as it uses healthy extra virgin olive oil and reduces the portion of cheese to reduce the calories while still making the soup delicious and yummy!
This is the best broccoli cheddar soup recipe for weight loss. I know you will not be disappointed in the flavor! I do recommend you add a main protein source with your low fat broccoli cheddar soup like this recipe for healthy turkey burgers, crispy baked salmon, baked turkey cutlets, baked pork chops, healthy coconut shrimp recipe, or crispy baked cod!
The options are endless for pairing a delicious protein with this low calorie broccoli and cheese soup recipe. You really can’t go wrong – it’s so tasty!
Healthy Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Ingredients
- 4 cups Broccoli Florets, diced into bite-size pieces
- 1 cup Leeks, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons Olive Oil, divided
- 2 tbsp All Purpose Flour, or gluten-free flour
- 2 tablespoons Garlic, minced
- 3 1/2 cups Low Sodium Vegetable Broth
- 1/2 cup Fat Free Half & Half
- 1 teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes, or paprika
- 1/3 cup Low Moisture Cheddar Cheese, shredded, or sub nutrition yeast for dairy free
- Extra Cheese for topping
Instructions
- Add 2 cups of water to a large pot and bring to a boil. Add the broccoli florets. Steam the broccoli in the boiling water 4-5 minutes then drain and return the pot on the stove.
- Reduce the heat to medium then add one tablespoon of olive oil. Add the leeks, garlic and olive oil. Stir together and cook 3-4 minutes until the leeks are tender. Remove from the pot and set aside.
- Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and flour. Cook over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes, whisking constantly, until the flour is thickened. This makes a roux and it’s very important the mixture is thick or soup will not thicken properly.
- To the pot, add half the broccoli, the cooked leeks and garlic, vegetable broth, half and half, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Stir and simmer covered 5-7 minutes.
- Using an immersion blender, blend half the broccoli into the broth. If you do not have an immersion blender, turn off the heat and cool the soup for 10 minutes then blend in a blender or food processor and return it to the pot and heat 10 minutes on medium heat before proceeding.
- Stir the other half of the broccoli then add the cheese into the soup. Taste to adjust the seasonings as needed.
Notes
- You can easily add your favorite protein to make this soup a balanced meal.
- Serve or store in the refrigerator up to 7 days. Store in the freezer up to 60 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Looking for a good low calorie broccoli soup so excited to try this! How much is a serving since I’m counting calories and protein etc?
The recipe makes 4 servings so 1/4th of the recipe equals one serving.
Absolutely delicious! I’ve made this several times and shared it with my neighbors. They are pleasantly surprised when I tell them it is low calorie and no cream!
Hi Megan,
Where is the sugar from and the carbs?
I can’t have any sugar or carbs with fat.
Can u advise.
Thx
Lucy
Sugar and carbs are coming from the broccoli and cheese.
Going to make this but where’s all the sodium coming from
Sodium is coming from all the ingredients. Broccoli naturally has sodium, black pepper has sodium, red pepper flakes has sodium, cheese has some sodium and the low sodium broth has some sodium too. The salt is the most dense in this recipe so if you are concerned about sodium then that is the area to reduce.