Copycat Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup (30 Minutes)

This Instant Pot broccoli cheddar soup is my copycat of Panera’s most-ordered soup — thick enough to coat a spoon, loaded with sharp cheddar, and on the table in 30 minutes for a few dollars instead of nine.

I’ve made this soup more times than I can count, and I’ll tell you upfront where the old version of this recipe went wrong: I used to dump everything in the pot, pressure cook it, and stir cold cream and cheese into the finished soup. It worked, sort of. But the broccoli came out soft and the cheese sometimes went grainy on people. So I rebuilt it.

Two changes fixed it, and they’re the whole reason this version tastes like the real thing:

• Build a roux first. Panera’s soup is thick because it’s built on butter and flour, not because it’s drowning in cream. Two minutes of whisking gives you that velvety body with half the dairy.
• Pressure cook for one minute. Not four. Not fifteen. Broccoli florets need almost nothing. The Instant Pot spends 10 minutes coming to pressure, and that’s already cooking them. One minute at high pressure gives you tender-but-intact broccoli instead of green mush.

Do those two things and you get a soup that’s around 345 calories a cup — which, funnily enough, lands right about where Panera’s own cup does.

Why You’ll Make This Again

• It reheats well all week, which the freezer version of this soup cannot say.
• 30 minutes, start to finish, and it’s genuinely one pot — the roux, the pressure cook, and the cheese all happen in the same liner.
• It’s thick without being heavy. The roux does the work. You’re using half-and-half, not two cups of heavy cream.
• The cheese melts smooth every time if you follow the one rule at the bottom of the recipe card.
• It’s cheaper than a bread bowl by a wide margin, and it feeds six.

Ingredients

Full measurements and step-by-step directions are in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post, along with nutrition info.

• Unsalted butter — the fat half of your roux. Don’t substitute oil here; the butter flavor matters in a soup this simple.
• Yellow onion and shredded carrots — the sweetness underneath everything. Matchstick carrots from a bag are perfect and save you the grating.
• Garlic — two cloves, fresh. Panera’s version is subtle on garlic, so don’t go heavier.
• All-purpose flour — the thickener. This is what makes it Panera-thick instead of broth-thin. (Gluten-free 1:1 blend works; see the FAQ.)
• Low-sodium broth — chicken or vegetable, your call. Use
• low-sodium, because you’re about to add eight ounces of cheddar and cheddar is salty.
• Fresh broccoli florets — chopped small, about a pound. Small pieces cook evenly and break down slightly into the soup, which is exactly what you want.
• Half-and-half — creamy without the heaviness of straight heavy cream. Whole milk works in a pinch; the soup will be slightly thinner.
• Sharp cheddar cheese — grate it yourself from a block. This is not a fussy chef opinion. Pre-shredded cheese is coated in cellulose and potato starch to keep it from clumping in the bag, and those coatings are precisely what make cheese soup grainy.
• Nutmeg and dry mustard — a pinch of each. Nutmeg is the classic move in any cheddar-and-cream soup, and dry mustard makes cheddar taste more like itself. Neither one is detectable on its own. Both are why this tastes like Panera.

How to Make Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup in the Instant Pot

Step 1 — Sauté the aromatics. Hit Sauté. Melt the butter, then add the onion and carrots and cook 3–4 minutes until the onion turns translucent. You’re not browning anything.

Step 2 — Make the roux. Add the garlic, then sprinkle the flour over everything and whisk constantly for 1–2 minutes. It’ll look like wet sand. That’s right. Cooking it this long kills the raw flour taste.

Step 3 — Deglaze, and mean it. Press Cancel. Pour in the broth a splash at a time, whisking, then take a wooden spoon and scrape the bottom of the liner until nothing is stuck to it. Run your spoon across the whole base. This step is not optional — flour on the bottom of the pot is the number one cause of the BURN notice, and thirty seconds of scraping prevents it entirely.

Step 4 — Add the broccoli on top. Pile the florets in and add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, and dry mustard. Do not stir. Let them sit on top of the liquid.

Step 5 — Pressure cook 1 minute. Lid on, valve sealed, high pressure, 1 minute. It’ll take about 10 minutes to come up. When the timer beeps, do a quick release immediately — carefully, and away from your face.

Step 6 — Cream, then cheese, in that order. Press Cancel so there’s no heat running. Stir in the half-and-half. Now add the grated cheddar in three or four handfuls, stirring each one until it disappears before adding the next. The residual heat melts it perfectly.

Step 7 — Taste and serve. Adjust salt and pepper. If you want it thicker, turn Sauté back on to LOW for a minute or two and stir — but never let it boil once the cheese is in.

The One Rule: Don’t Boil the Cheese

Everything else in this recipe is forgiving. This isn’t.

Cheddar is an emulsion of fat, protein, and water. Take it above roughly 180°F and that emulsion breaks — the proteins seize into curds and the fat weeps out. That’s the grainy, oily soup you’ve had before, and it is not fixable once it happens.

So: Cancel the heat before the cheese goes in. Add it in handfuls. Stir gently. If your soup needs help thickening afterward, use Sauté on LOW and pull it the second you see the first bubble.

Pro Tips

• Grate the block. Worth saying twice. It’s the single biggest difference between this soup and a grainy one.
• Sharp or extra-sharp only. Mild cheddar disappears into the cream and you’ll wonder why your soup tastes like nothing.
• Chop the broccoli small — bite-size, roughly half-inch. Big florets stay crunchy in the middle while the small bits turn to mush.
• Room-temperature half-and-half melts the cheese better than cold. Set it on the counter when you start.
• Want it smoother? Pulse an immersion blender in the pot two or three times before adding the cheese, not after. Panera’s is textured, not pureed, so don’t overdo it.
• If you get the BURN notice, cancel, release pressure, and scrape the bottom of the liner clean before restarting. You didn’t deglaze enough in Step 3.

FAQs

Can I use frozen broccoli?

Yes, and don’t thaw it — add it straight from the bag in Step 4. Keep the cook time at 1 minute. Frozen broccoli comes out a little softer than fresh, so the texture will lean more toward Panera’s actual soup, which some people prefer.

Why is my broccoli cheddar soup grainy?

The cheese got too hot, or it was pre-shredded. Cancel the heat before the cheese goes in and grate it yourself from a block. Once cheese breaks, you can’t bring it back.

How do I make the soup thicker?

It should already be thick from the roux. If you want more, turn Sauté to LOW after the cheese is melted and stir for a minute or two — but do not let it boil.

How do I make it thinner?

Splash in more warm broth until it’s where you want it.

Can I make this vegetarian?

Yes — use vegetable broth. Everything else is already vegetarian.

Can I make this gluten-free?

Yes. Swap in a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend for the all-purpose. It thickens nearly identically. Check your broth label too.

Can I make it lower in carbs?

Skip the roux entirely and thicken at the end with a slurry of ½ teaspoon xanthan gum whisked into the half-and-half. The texture is close, though not quite as silky.

How do I store leftovers?

Airtight container in the fridge, 3–4 days. Reheat gently on the stovetop or at 50% power in the microwave, stirring often. A splash of milk brings it back if it’s tightened up.

Can I freeze it?

Honestly, no. Cream-and-cheese soups separate when frozen and thawed. You’ll get a grainy, watery mess. This one is worth making fresh.

Can I add other vegetables?

Cauliflower and diced celery both work — add them in Step 4 with the broccoli. Potatoes need to be diced small and will push you toward a chowder, which is a fine place to end up.

Make It a “You Pick Two” at Home

The soup is the anchor, but half the fun of a Panera copycat night is building the whole tray. Pair a cup of this with my Copycat Panera Green Goddess Cobb Salad or a Copycat Panera Tuna Salad Sandwich and you’ve got the combo for about a third of the price.

If you want something warmer alongside it, the Air Fryer Copycat Panera Frontega Chicken Sandwich is the one my family asks for. And my Instant Pot Copycat Panera Tomato Soup is the other soup I make on repeat all winter — between the two of them, I’ve stopped going to Panera almost entirely.

For breakfast the next morning, the Panera Copycat Cinnamon Crunch Bagels come together in about 30 minutes with five ingredients, and my Copycat Panera Granola keeps for weeks.

What to Serve With It

Bread is not optional with this soup. My Instant Pot Dinner Rolls proof right in the pot, so you can make them while the soup cools. For something faster and cheesier to dunk, go with the Air Fryer Cheesy Garlic Bread Rolls.

More Instant Pot Soups I Make on Repeat

If this one lands for you, these are the other Instant Pot soups in my regular winter rotation:

• Instant Pot French Onion Soup — all the flavor of the six-hour stovetop version, in under an hour.
• Instant Pot Chicken Pot Pie Soup — everything you love about pot pie, minus the crust work.
• Instant Pot New England Clam Chowder — thick, briny, and done in 20 minutes.
• Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup with Homemade Meatballs — the meatballs are worth the extra ten minutes.
• Instant Pot Curried Pumpkin Soup — the one nobody expects to love and everybody does.

You’ll find the rest of my copycat recipes here, and every soup recipe on the site here.