Broccoli Cheese Soup (KETO Friendly)

It finally dropped down the 70’s/80’s in Southeast Texas and that is soup weather down here and I have been craving broccoli and cheese soup something fierce so here we go….KETO friendly Broccoli Cheese Soup.

One of the best

I am a BIG, BIG fan of broccoli and cheese soup. When I go to Panera I always get in their bread bowl (well before KETO that is) and I LOVED it. Being that I now a Keto Girl I decided to make my favorite soup Keto style and let me tell you it is AMAZING!

In past recipes I have used whole milk or even half & half and they were good, but using heavy cream and some cream cheese makes this soup soooooo good. It is rich, creamy and loaded with tons of flavor. It is super filling but low on carbs making this a dish everyone can LOVE.

A little something extra

To add a little extra layer of yummy I roasted the broccoli as I was rendering the bacon and onions. Roasted broccoli is one of my favorite veggies ever, so adding it to this broccoli cheese soup was a MUST.

To keep it simple and let the broccoli be the star I drizzled it with a little olive oil and sprinkled some all purpose seasoning over the top and then roasted it for about 15 minutes. The edges were just starting to char giving the broccoli a roasted goodness that really shines through in the soup.

We could just stop here

Let’s be honest we could just stop with the broccoli and bacon and serve it as a side (and I will probably do this version) but this is just the base for the soup. The beauty of this soup is that we are building flavor, upon flavor, upon flavor as we keep adding to the same pot.

It starts with bacon and ends with cheese…how good does all that sound?

Puree or not

I personally love a thick broccoli cheese soup. In some other recipes you would make a slurry with cornstarch or flour to thicken the soup up, but to keep this keto/low carb I decided to puree the soup allowing to thicken up naturally. I wasn’t sure it was going to be as thick as I wanted but it came out perfect.

I used an immersion blender to quickly puree the soup. Once all done there were a few larger broccoli pieces in each bowl giving the soup a great texture and bite.

If you do not want to puree it you do not have too. The soup will be delicious either way, it will just not be as thick.