Bacon Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Ingredients

Here's what you'll need:

• Bacon: Cook it first and keep about a tablespoon of the drippings in the pot. That rendered fat is what the onions and garlic go into, and it's carrying most of the smoky flavor. If you drain the pot completely and start over with butter, the soup still works, it just tastes flatter.
• Broccoli: Fresh or frozen both work. Chop the florets small so they cook evenly and you're not fishing out one giant piece per bowl. Frozen goes straight into the pot with no thawing, it just needs a couple of extra minutes.
• Carrots: These aren't only for color. They add enough sweetness to round out the salt from the bacon and the sharpness from the cheddar, which is a big part of why kids eat this one. Skip them and the soup tastes noticeably saltier.
• Onion and garlic: Sautéed in the bacon drippings, these build the savory base. Cook the onion until it's soft and translucent before the flour goes in, since it won't soften much once the liquid is in the pot.
• Flour: Cooked into the drippings and butter, this makes the roux that thickens everything. Give it a full two minutes or the soup tastes chalky. Without it you'd need to reduce the soup much longer or lean on cream to get the same body.
• Butter: Rounds out the fat for the roux and adds a little richness the bacon drippings alone don't cover.
• Broth: Chicken stock or vegetable broth. Go low sodium if you can. Between the bacon, the broth and the cheddar, this soup picks up salt from three directions, and a salty broth is the easiest way to end up unable to correct it.
• Milk and half and half: The pair does what heavy cream would do, without the heaviness. The milk keeps it from feeling like a sauce, the half and half gives it enough body to coat a spoon. You can swap in heavy cream if that's what's open, but the soup gets noticeably richer and a little harder to finish a full bowl of.
• Cheddar cheese: Sharp or mild, your call. Sharp gives you more cheese flavor per handful, so you need less of it. Grate it yourself from a block. Pre-shredded cheese is coated in starch to keep it from clumping in the bag, and that same coating is what makes soup go gritty when it melts.
• Salt and pepper: Season at the end, after the cheese is in. The cheddar and bacon are both already salty and you can't take it back out.

See recipe card for quantities.

How To Make Bacon Broccoli Cheddar Soup

1. Cook the bacon. Cook the bacon in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp, about 8 minutes. Move it to a paper towel lined plate and pour off all but about a tablespoon of the drippings.

2. Sauté the onion and garlic. Add the butter to the same pot and let it melt into the drippings. Cook the chopped onion and garlic until the onion is soft and translucent, about 3 minutes. Get it soft now, because it won't soften much once the liquid goes in.

3. Add the flour. Sprinkle the flour over the onion and garlic. Stir and cook for a full 2 minutes. This is what thickens the soup later, and cutting the time short leaves a chalky, raw flour taste behind.

4. Add the broth and milk. Whisk in the chicken stock a little at a time, scraping the bottom of the pot as you go, then whisk in the milk. Adding the liquid gradually keeps the roux from seizing into lumps.

5. Simmer. Add the broccoli and carrots. Bring it to a gentle simmer and cook about 10 minutes, until the vegetables are tender but still hold their shape. Keep it at a simmer rather than a boil now that there's milk in the pot. *This soup stays chunky, which is how I like it. If you want it smoother, blend part of it with an immersion blender at the end of this step, before any of the dairy or cheese goes in. Blending after the cheese is added is what turns a good soup grainy.

6. Add the half and half and cheese. Pour in the half and half and stir until it's combined. Now take the pot off the heat completely before the cheddar goes anywhere near it. Add the cheese in small handfuls, stirring each one until it disappears before adding the next. The soup is still plenty hot enough to melt it, and off the burner it can't get hot enough to break. Rushing this step is the single most common way this soup goes grainy.

7. Season and serve. Taste it now, after the cheese, and add salt and pepper from there. Chop the cooked bacon and scatter it over each bowl right before serving so it stays crisp.

Variations

• Broccoli cauliflower: Swap cauliflower for half the broccoli. It cooks in the same time and softens the broccoli flavor for anyone who isn't fully sold on it.
• Loaded baked potato style: Add a cup of small-diced potatoes with the broth, then finish each bowl with sour cream and sliced green onion alongside the bacon. Heavier and closer to a full dinner.
• Spicy: A pinch of cayenne with the flour, or red pepper flakes on top at the table. Adding it to the roux spreads the heat through the whole pot, adding it at the end keeps it optional per bowl.
• Sharper cheese blend: Half cheddar, half Gruyère or Monterey Jack. Both melt more smoothly than cheddar alone, which gives you a little insurance against graininess along with more depth.
• Bread bowl: Hollow out a small sourdough round and toast the inside before ladling the soup in. Toasting matters, otherwise the bread goes soggy in about two minutes.

What To Serve With Bacon Broccoli Cheddar Soup

• Crusty bread: The default for a reason. A slice of no knead whole wheat bread holds up to dipping without falling apart in the bowl.
• Garlic bread: Cheesy and garlicky against a cheesy soup shouldn't work as well as it does. Air fryer cheesy tortilla garlic bread is the fastest version if you're already 40 minutes in.
• Grilled cheese: The classic pairing. Use a sharper cheddar in the sandwich than you did in the soup so the two don't taste like the same thing twice.
• A simple green salad: Something acidic to cut the richness. A green salad with a sharp vinaigrette resets your palate between spoonfuls, which matters more than it sounds like with a soup this creamy.
• Mac and cheese: Only if the soup is a starter rather than the meal. Gouda mac and cheese works because gouda reads differently enough from cheddar to feel like a separate dish.
• Biscuits: Buttery and soft rather than crusty, good for tearing and dropping straight into the bowl.