Instant Pot Broccoli Cheddar Soup is thick and creamy, made with fresh broccoli, potatoes, half and half, shredded cheddar cheese and spices, and ready in less than 30 minutes!
Turn your Instant pot on to saute mode and add butter, carrot, and onion. Stir frequently until onions start to brown. Stir in seasoning and cook for another minute. Turn off saute mode.
Add broccoli, potatoes, and broth and stir together. Put the lid on the Instant pot and lock into place with the steam valve closed. Manually set the timer for 8 minutes. It will take about 10 minutes for the pot to come to pressure, then 8 minutes to cook.
When the timer is finished, quick release the steam valve (use an oven mitt, hot steam will start to escape escape until the pressure drops).
Once done, remove the lid and use an immersion blender to puree the soup (leave a few whole pieces of potato and broccoli if you want some extra texture). Stir in cheese and half and half. Let the hot soup melt the cheese for about a minute, then stir again to completely mix.
Notes
Cheesy. Pre-shredded cheese often has trouble melting as well as the block of cheese that you shred yourself. I recommend shredding it yourself for best results. Substitutions. Instead of half and half, you can also use heavy cream, or canned full-fat coconut milk with a melting vegan cheese. Or just leave it out entirely, but it will be less of a creamy broccoli soup.You can replace the onion with leeks, or use a yellow or white onion. It will change the flavor profile a bit but it would still taste good. Leave out the red pepper flakes and cut the black pepper in half if you want this less spicy.Replace the potatoes with cauliflower, and change the cook time to 1 minute instead of 8 for a lower carb option. You can swap the vegetable broth with chicken stock. Just make sure it's gluten free. Vegan soup. Make this a vegan soup by changing the half and half to coconut milk (from a can), use olive oil instead of butter, and swap the cheese for your favorite good-melting vegan cheese. You can also leave the cheese out and use nutritional yeast to replace the flavor. Storage. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat in a pot over medium-low heat.I don't recommend freezing this, because the texture will get grainy when you reheat it. If you want to freeze, puree and cool completely. Then freeze in an airtight container before adding the cheese or half and half. Add your dairy ingredients when you reheat the soup later, in a pot on the stove over medium-low heat.