Vegan Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup Copycat

This is a home copycat of the Panera broccoli cheddar soup, made without dairy. Boiled potato and cashews blend into the creamy base, nutritional yeast does the cheesy, savoury work and turmeric brings the colour. It is a home version only, not made by or endorsed by Panera, and the chain’s original soup is not vegan.

What goes into this vegan broccoli cheddar soup?

The whole thing rests on the blended base. Russet potatoes are starchy, so they thicken the soup recipe as they break down, and cashews add the fat that would otherwise come from cream. Nutritional yeast supplies the savoury, faintly cheesy note, and turmeric gives the yellow-orange colour that makes it look right in the bowl.

The soup is dairy-free as written. It is not nut-free as written, because of the cashews, but you can leave them out. See the question on cashews further down for what to use instead and what it costs you in texture.

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Once you are done making the soup, make a bread bowl and serve the soup in it to give the classic touch right inside your kitchen. As you keep making it, you will find your own ways to change the basic recipe.

Ingredients needed for vegan broccoli cheddar soup

• Yellow Onion – 1 (diced)
• Frozen Broccoli – about 20 ounces (570 g)
• Russet Potatoes - 2 Large ones (peel and cube them)
• Nutritional Yeast – ½ cup (125 ml)
• Raw Cashews – ½ cup (125 ml) (leave out in case of nut allergies)
• Salt – 1 teaspoon
• Garlic – 1 teaspoon
• Pepper - ½ teaspoon (freshly ground)
• Turmeric Powder – 1 teaspoon
• Veggie Broth – 1.5 cups (375 ml)
• Water – 2 cups (500 ml)
• Vegan Milk - 1 cup (250 ml) (any vegan milk, but unsweetened version only)
• vegan cheddar cheese - for decoration

How to make the soup

• We recommend you use all the above ingredients to get the perfectly creamy texture of the soup, just like at Panera. However, in case of nut allergies in your family, you can avoid cashews altogether.
• Use a big soup pot for sautéing the yellow onions and frozen broccoli. Once they are slightly sautéed, you need to pour just ½ cup of vegetable broth into the pot and cook well. Let the flame remain medium-high while the vegetables are getting cooked. The onion and broccoli need to be very soft. After a while, you need to check if the broccoli is breaking apart when you press it with the back of a spoon. If it breaks, you can switch off the flame.
• In another pot, boil the potatoes and cashews (if using) with water. They need to be cooked until they turn very soft. Once they become soft, switch off the flame and strain all the water from them. Blend the contents well in a blender until you get a creamy mixture.
• In the blender that contains the potato & cashew paste, you should now add the nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, garlic, turmeric, water, and vegan milk. If your blender cannot hold all the ingredients, blend them twice in small batches. Blend all the contents well until the entire mixture is smooth and devoid of lumps.
• Now, switch on the flame of the soup pot. You already have the soft broccoli and onions inside. You should add the potato mixture in the blender to the broccoli. To this, add the veggie broth that is remaining and stir the contents well. Let the mixture boil for 5 minutes on a medium-high flame before switching off the stove.
• Serve in a bowl or a bread bowl and enjoy immediately while it is hot and creamy.
• You can store the leftovers, if any, in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

How do you get it closer to the original?

• You can buy a big loaf of bread, scoop out the middle, and warm the hollowed portion for a few minutes to get a nice toasted exterior. Make small cubes of the pieces you have scooped out, and toast them well on a pan. Decorate the soup with these toasted bread cubes to get that Panera-like feel.
• If you want to make the soup thicker, you can reduce the water poured when blending the contents. Don’t cut down on the quantity of vegan milk, though, as it adds to the soup’s creaminess.
• If you don’t want to bite into any pieces or prefer a completely pureed soup with just the flavours of all ingredients, we recommend you blend the onions and broccoli well after being sautéed and made soft.
• You can make the soup tastier and more visually appealing than before. You can roast a few broccoli pieces to be added to the topping. For this, please preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220C, or 200C fan-forced) and roast the frozen broccoli for about 15 to 20 minutes to get the crisp taste. This will give your soup the perfect garnish.
• We recommend frozen broccoli here. It is blanched before freezing, so it softens and breaks apart faster than fresh broccoli does, which is what you want for a blended soup. Fresh broccoli works, it just needs a few more minutes in the pot.
• You can cut down on the carbohydrate content of the soup by replacing potatoes with cauliflower.
• Please don’t skip nutritional yeast, as it is used to give the soup a cheesy and thick flavour. There are quite a few high-quality brands of nutritional yeast in the market, with subtle flavours suitable for use in this soup.
• It is good to soak cashews in hot water for about 1 or 2 hours before cooking them with the potatoes. This way, they get softer quickly, and blend into a thick paste quickly.

Is Panera’s broccoli cheddar soup vegan?

No. The version sold at Panera is a dairy soup, made with cheese and cream, so it is not suitable for vegans or anyone avoiding dairy. Recipes and allergen information also change over time and vary by location, so check the chain’s own allergen listing if you need to be certain. This recipe is an independent home copycat, not made by or endorsed by Panera.

Can I make it without cashews?

Yes. Leave them out and the soup is nut-free, but you lose some richness, because the cashews are standing in for cream. Add half a cup of raw sunflower seeds boiled with the potatoes, or an extra potato plus a splash more vegan milk, to get some of that body back. Full-fat oat milk also helps, as it is naturally thicker than most plant milks.

How long does it keep?

Up to 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge. It thickens as it sits, so add a splash of stock or vegan milk when you reheat it, and warm it gently rather than boiling it hard. It freezes for up to 3 months, though the texture can separate slightly on thawing. A quick blitz with a stick blender brings it back together.

This is a vegetable-heavy soup: broccoli, potato and onion, with cashews and nutritional yeast doing the work that cheese and cream do in the original.

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