Broccoli Cheddar Soup With Cultured Cream for Full GAPS

This broccoli cheddar soup is creamy, gently tangy and full of soft vegetables. Homemade chicken meat stock, kefir-cultured cream and sharp cheddar give it body without flour, cornstarch or a roux. A little nutmeg rounds out the cheese flavor without making the soup taste sweet.

The vegetables simmer first. Then you blend the soup as smooth as you like and stir in the cheddar at the end. Keep a little of that same grated cheese for the bowls. You get four servings from this batch, with small broccoli pieces left in a mostly creamy base if that is the texture you prefer.

Soup has a practical place in our house. Starting meat stock in the morning has been the routine that made GAPS doable for us, and the pot looks different depending on the budget and what is available. This version gives that familiar stock a different flavor once cultured cream and cheese are part of the family’s dairy choices. It takes a little advance thought because the cream needs to be finished before the soup begins.

Ingredients for Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Homemade butter and a medium onion: Melt one tablespoon of homemade unsalted butter for the chopped onion. Let the onion become soft, with light browning around the edges. That first step adds flavor before the stock goes in.

One cup of cultured cream: Use finished kefir-cultured sour cream. Measure one cup from the completed jar. It replaces the fresh heavy cream in this soup and gives the finished bowl a tangier taste. Adding kefir to fresh cream immediately before cooking would skip the cream’s fermentation.

Three cups of chicken meat stock: Make the chicken meat stock separately. The stock is the main cooking liquid, so use the full three cups rather than topping up a small amount with water. Its salt level can vary; you can adjust the soup’s finishing salt after tasting.

One small head of fresh broccoli: Remove the tough stem and cut the florets into bite-sized pieces. You should have about three cups chopped. Smaller, fairly even pieces soften more evenly and are easier to leave in the soup if you want some texture.

One large shredded carrot: Shred it rather than cutting thick coins. The fine pieces cook among the broccoli and onion and blend into the base. They add orange flecks and a mild sweetness alongside the sharp cheddar.

Eight ounces of sharp cheddar: Grate a block of natural, traditionally made cheddar without starch coatings or other non-GAPS additives. Eight ounces is about two cups grated, but the weight is the clearer measure. Reserve a little from those eight ounces for serving, rather than adding an extra unmeasured topping.

The seasoning is one-quarter teaspoon nutmeg, half a teaspoon sea salt or to taste, and one-quarter teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Nutmeg is strong in a small quantity. Measure it before adding it so it supports the cheese instead of taking over the pot.

When This Soup Fits on GAPS

This is a Full GAPS soup after butter, kefir-cultured cream and natural cheese have been introduced. The GAPS dairy sequence places yogurt and yogurt-culture sour cream before kefir-cultured dairy, with natural cheese later. Follow the dairy progression for the people eating it, alongside their vegetable progression.

It is not an early Intro soup simply because it contains meat stock and cooked broccoli. The cup of cultured cream and eight ounces of cheddar are part of the recipe. For an earlier, simpler bowl, use the linked chicken meat stock preparation with the foods already introduced instead of trying to turn this cheese soup into that first-stage meal.

If you need a dairy-free soup, the separate pumpkin soup with coconut milk gives you a creamy stock-based option without cheese. Coconut milk alone would not make this broccoli-cheddar recipe dairy-free because the butter and cheddar would still be present.

For More-Plant Full GAPS, the broccoli, carrot and onion provide the vegetables while the soup also contains dairy and chicken meat stock. It does not fit No-Plant GAPS.

How to Make the Soup

Soften the Onion in Butter

Set a roomy soup pot over medium heat and melt the butter. Add the chopped onion and stir it through the fat. Cook until the pieces are soft and their edges begin to brown. You want a gently browned onion base, not dark, scorched bits.

If the onion is coloring before it softens, lower the heat. Keep the pieces moving across the bottom with a wooden spoon. Their smell should change from sharp raw onion to a softer, savory aroma as they cook.

Simmer the Vegetables Until Soft

Add the finished cultured cream, chicken meat stock, chopped broccoli and shredded carrot. Keep the heat at medium while the pot comes to a simmer. Stir through the cream so you do not leave a thick patch sitting on the bottom.

Once it is simmering, lower the heat to medium-low and cook for about 20 minutes, or until the broccoli is soft. Look for small, steady bubbles rather than a rolling boil. A fork should press through a floret easily before you move on to blending.

Do not shorten that vegetable-softening step just because the cheese is ready. Broccoli that still resists the fork will leave a firmer, uneven texture in the finished soup. The carrot shreds should soften along with it.

Blend to the Texture You Like

Stir in the nutmeg, salt and pepper. My blender is the Ninja BN801, and its guide says not to blend hot liquids. Take the soup off the heat and let it cool completely before transferring any to that blender. This adds cooling time to the stovetop preparation.

Blend in batches within the pitcher’s marked liquid limit, then return the soup to the pot. For a mostly smooth soup with a few broccoli pieces, blend a portion and leave some soft vegetables unblended. For a smoother bowl, blend more of it. Keep the same ingredients and measures either way.

The blended vegetables give the liquid more body. There is no flour mixture to prepare and no extra thickener to sprinkle in. Return the blended soup to gentle heat before adding the cheese.

Finish With Cheddar

Set aside a little of the grated cheddar for the bowls. Stir the rest into the warm soup until it melts through. Use low heat and keep the soup below a boil after the cheese goes in.

The spoon should lift a creamy soup with the vegetables distributed through it. Boiling the finished cheese soup can spoil that smooth texture. If you need to warm it again before serving, do so gently while stirring across the bottom.

Timing and Useful Equipment

Allow about 30 minutes for preparation and 30 minutes for cooking. The vegetables have their own roughly 20-minute simmer within that cooking time. The Ninja blending route also needs complete cooling and gentle reheating, so plan extra time for those steps. The cream’s day-long fermentation and the meat stock preparation are done ahead.

A stainless-steel or enameled cast-iron soup pot gives you room to stir the vegetables and cheese. A wooden spoon, cutting board, knife, grater, measuring cups and small measuring spoons cover the preparation. Use a kitchen scale for the cheddar when you have one.

The Ninja BN801 fits the cooled blending route. Keep hot soup out of its pitcher and use the marked liquid limit for each batch. This is a stovetop soup; it does not need a pressure-cooking cycle or a separate cooker method.

Serving, Storage and Making It Ahead

Ladle the soup into four bowls and scatter the reserved cheddar over the top. Because it is already rich with cream and cheese, a second creamy sauce is not needed. Serve it as the soup portion of your meal, with other introduced foods as wanted.

For another broccoli dinner, chicken broccoli casserole with cultured cream puts cooked chicken and vegetables into a baked meal. It is useful when you have chicken to use as well as stock. Follow its baking directions for that meal.

You can get the cream and stock ready ahead, grate the cheese, and prepare the vegetables before cooking. Keep the prepared ingredients refrigerated. With homeschooling before second shift, having those jobs done earlier would make the soup much easier to fit into a weekday.

Refrigerate cooked leftovers promptly in shallow, covered containers and use within three to four days. Reheat the portion you need gently, stirring often and keeping it below a boil to protect the cheese texture. Do not leave the whole pot sitting out between meals.

My upcoming Soups & Stews Cookbook brings more homemade-stock meals together for the days when you want a different bowl without starting meal planning from scratch. Find the collection through the WFLI shop as it becomes available.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Use Fresh Heavy Cream?

This version uses completed kefir-cultured cream. Make that preparation ahead and measure one finished cup. Fresh cream has a later place in the GAPS dairy sequence; use the cultured cream for this soup.

How Do I Make It Thicker?

Blend more of the softened vegetables into the liquid. Start with the stated three cups of stock and one cup cultured cream. Extra water or stock would dilute that balance, so avoid adding it automatically.

Why Does the Cheese Go in Last?

The broccoli needs to simmer until soft, while the cheddar only needs gentle heat to melt through. Adding it after blending lets you finish the soup without boiling the cheese for the vegetable-cooking time.

Can I Double the Batch?

Yes. Use the card’s 2× amounts and a pot with enough room for the doubled vegetables and liquid. The vegetables still need to become soft before blending, and each cooled blender batch must stay within the pitcher’s liquid limit.