There is nothing better than creamy loaded potato and broccoli soup. This creamy potato soup is a dream that comes fully loaded and packed with all the favorite baked potato toppings like bacon, sour cream, green onions and more, including broccoli florets.
This soup comes together in under and hour, pair it with buttery crackers and a salad for a delicious weeknight dinner.
You choose the toppings
This soup has a lot of the same ingredients you would find on a loaded baked potato, but that doesn’t mean you have to use them all and feel free to add in extras!
Bacon – bacon bits are a staple for loaded – anything. You name it, it usually has bacon on it. Feel free to use turkey bacon or keep it out entirely, if you do this, make sure to substitute olive oil for the bacon grease in the recipe below.
Cheese – I used white cheddar because it’s great. Feel free to use whatever you have in the fridge, some other great options are yellow sharp cheese, pepper jack or even something like Gruyère cheese.
Milk – this is the base of the soup, you will want to use 2% or whole milk for the ultimate comfort creamy loaded potato soup.
Sour Cream – this adds a little acidity and helps balance the softness of the potatoes and milk.
Chicken Stock – feel free to substitute with vegetable stock if you want to make this vegetarian. Unsalted stock is always preferred if you can find it.
Salt – Potatoes love salt. Salt is very important to bring out the flavors of this soup so don’t shy away but use with caution. At the end of cooking, taste before serving, if the soup seems bland or dull sprinkle in a pinch or two of salt, this will get the layers of flavors to wake up and shine.
Green Onions – Perfect for garnish, you can also use chives for the ultimate baked potato experience.
Let’s talk potatoes
There are so many different types of potatoes. For this soup you want something starchy like Yukon Gold, Katahdin, or Russet, avoid using any of the waxy varieties. The starch is what will make the soup creamy.
With starchy potatoes it is important to know how and why the starch is important. The starch is inside of the potato, ever notice the sticky white residue on a knife after cutting? That’s starch. By cutting and rinsing you can control how much starch stays in the dish.
For example, for perfect crispy fries with a soft pillowy potato on the inside you want less starch so you rinse fries several times, whereas, for a cloud of creamy fluffy mashed potatoes you need more starch, so you rinse those potatoes less.
For this soup, to get the perfect creaminess – rinse the potatoes twice. Once after they are peeled and once after they are cut into pieces.
How to achieve the creamiest creamy loaded potato soup
To achieve the creamiest potato soup, after the potatoes cook until they are fork tender, I blend about 3/4 of the potatoes until they smooth. I add them into a blender with a little bit of the liquid from the soup and blend until creamy smooth. Once smooth, dump it all back into the soup and add the broccoli to finish cooking.
When you do this, be very careful, hot food when blended will expand, so only fill your blender about half way and do not seal the blender top on tightly, leave a little air space to give it room to expand without exploding out. If you use an immersion hand blender, the same rules apply it may expand so do a little at a time. You may have to do this in stages to get all of the potatoes blended until smooth.
This is just a preference, if you want more potato chunks, blend less that I do. If you want no potato chunks, blend all of them.
Creamy Loaded Potato & Broccoli Soup
Ingredients
- 3 lbs Gold Potatoes – peeled, cut into small bite-chunks
- 5 slices Bacon
- 1 White or Yellow Onion – diced
- 1 clove Garlic – minced
- 4 cups Milk Whole or 2%
- 3 cups Chicken Stock
- 1 tsp Pepper
- 2 tsp Salt
- 3 cups Fresh Broccoli Florets about 1 medium head of broccoli
- ½ cup Sour Cream
- 1 cup White Cheddar Cheese
- Green onions or chives for garnish
Instructions
- Prepare your potatoes: Peel and rinse. Then cut into bite-size chunks and rinse again. Set aside.3 lbs Gold Potatoes – peeled, cut into small bite-chunks
- Cut the bacon into pieces. Cook the bacon in a large dutch-oven pot until crispy. Leaving the grease in the bottom of the pot, remove the crispy bacon and place it on a paper towel lined paper. Set it aside.5 slices Bacon
- In the TBSP of bacon grease add your diced onions, minced garlic and a pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat until the onion becomes translucent and the garlic is fragrant.1 White or Yellow Onion – diced, 1 clove Garlic – minced
- Add in milk, chicken stock, salt and pepper. Using your spoon, mix in any bits of flavor that are on the bottom of the pan. Add in your cut potatoes and cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes until the potatoes become fork-tender.4 cups Milk, 3 cups Chicken Stock, 1 tsp Pepper, 2 tsp Salt
- Once your potatoes are soft, remove from heat and blend 1/2 of the soup for a creamer consistency. (see blog notes for helpful hints) Add the smooth blended soup back into the pan and stir until incorporated.
- Add in your broccoli florets and sour cream. Stir until combined. Over medium heat until broccoli is cooked about 5 minutes.3 cups Fresh Broccoli Florets, ½ cup Sour Cream
- Remove from heat and add in your cheese. Stir until fully melted and incorporated. *turning off the heat is important, cheese will separate if it's heated too high for too long leaving your soup with a grainy texture.1 cup White Cheddar Cheese
- Top with the crispy bacon and sliced green onions.Green onions or chives for garnish
