Meals · Soups & stews

Broccoli cheddar soup

Name: Broccoli cheddar soup
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 3 tbsp butter; 1 yellow onions, diced; 1/4 cup all-purpose flour; 3 cups chicken broth; 2 cups whole milk; 1 large head broccoli, cut small, stems too; 1 large mature carrots, shredded; 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded; 1 tsp Dijon mustard; 3/4 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp black pepper

The bread-bowl legend, home edition: broccoli and carrot in a cheddar velvet that a certain bakery chain built an empire on. Made from scratch it costs less and holds more vegetables.

Time: 40 min (10 prep + 30 cook)
Servings: 4
Per serving: 431 kcal
Protein: 20 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

3 tbsp butter45 g
1 yellow onions, diced120 g
1/4 cup all-purpose flour30 g
3 cups chicken broth700 g
2 cups whole milk480 g
1 large head broccoli, cut small, stems too500 g
1 large mature carrots, shredded100 g
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded170 g
1 tsp Dijon mustard5 g
3/4 tsp salt4 g
1/2 tsp black pepper1 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Soften the onion in the butter, stir in the flour and cook a minute, then whisk in the broth and milk.
Add the broccoli and carrot and simmer 15–20 minutes until tender.
Blend about half the pot — roughly, right in the pot with a stick blender — so it's creamy but still has broccoli to chew.
Off the heat, stir in the cheddar a handful at a time, then the mustard, salt and pepper. Off-heat matters: boiled cheddar splits into grease.

What does the dijon do?

The dijon is the secret handshake — it sharpens the cheddar without announcing itself. And shred the cheese yourself; pre-shredded is coated in starch and melts grainy.

Why this score

solidly filling

No single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

18% of kcal

82% water

11 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 1723 kcal goes into the pot, 2155 g of ingredients comes out as ~1800 g of food → 96 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 96
Protein: (18%); 4 g
Fat: (58%); 6 g
Carbohydrates: (24%); 6 g
of which sugar: 3 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 336 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

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Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.