Only 5 ingredients, and easy to make in the slow cooker, this simple vegetarian soup is packed with flavor! This is my take on the UK classic broccoli stilton (or other blue cheese) soup with a little extra potato to make it economical and filling.
Let’s just get this part over with. Yes, the soup contains broccoli. Broccoli is green. It also contains blue cheese. Blue cheese has blue in it. Why is the soup not looking very green?
Well, it does in real life. My photography skills just kind of fail me sometimes.
The good news? I took an awesome photography class last weekend, and plan to take more, so maybe next time I’ll know what I’m doing.
The better news? Who cares about the color anyway, this soup is delicious and reallyreally easy.
So if you’re in the market for a decent soup idea, your search may be over! This is based on the UK’s traditional broccoli and stilton soup, bulked out with a lot of potatoes – this makes it more economical to scale up, and thicker and more filling too- more of a meal soup.
There are only five ingredients and no pre-cooking is required, just dump it all in the slow cooker and walk away. So you get to take a little break from the kitchen during the holidays. You need it, right? WE ALL DO.
(Oh and you don’t need to peel the potatoes if you don’t want to. I’ve tried it both ways, and it’s fine. The skins just get blended in. Seriously, don’t even bother.)
This is a real treat for those who love the taste of blue cheese. But you really do need to love the taste of blue cheese because it’s packed full of the stinky stilton. Mmmm.
You can, however, substitute a strong vintage cheddar if you need to play it safe. Or indeed, another good quality blue cheese, if you’re outside of the UK and can only get stilton as an import (I’m thinking it’s probably not worth buying a block of imported cheese just to throw it into a soup, as delightfully indulgent as that would be!).
I’ve tried it with half the amount of stilton, to see if it works as a lighter soup, and for me it was too bland. So I would suggest not scaling down on the blue cheese unless you have some other tricks up your sleeve for adding flavor… May I suggest truffle oil?
PLEASE NOTE: This recipe is designed for a 4.7L / 5 Quart slow cooker. If yours is smaller, you will need to scale the ingredients down.
Broccoli Stilton Potato Soup {slow cooker}
Ingredients
- 6 medium sized potatoes, roughly chopped into small cubes or thin slices (the potatoes can either be peeled or unpeeled)
- 1 large white onion, roughly chopped
- 225 g (8 oz) strong blue cheese, I used stilton
- 1 head of broccoli, roughly chopped
- 2 litres (8 cups) vegetable stock
Instructions
- Put your potatoes, broccoli and onion into the slow cooker and pour in the vegetable stock. In a 5 quart pot it should come to just below the maximum fill line but keep an eye on this.
- Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or high for 3-4.
- An hour before serving, roughly crumble or chop your blue cheese and add it to the slow cooker. Stir for a few moments to start the process of it melting in, before replacing the lid. After half an hour, lift and stir through to incorporate the melted cheese into the soup and then use an immersion blender to completely puree it.
- Let cook for another half hour before serving.
I literally want to submerge myself in this… SO yummy, and such a great way to use up your stilton after Christmas!
Exactly! If you’re able to get through Christmas with leftover stilton, this is the reward! 🙂
This looks and sounds delicious. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thank you James, so glad you stopped by!
with broccoli and stilton as the main two ingredients, I was confident that this would be delicious, and I wasn’t disappointed! Stilton is a family tradition for us, so would love to see more recipes that include it. Thanks Christine!
with broccoli and stilton as the main two ingredients, I was confident that this would be delicious, and I wasn’t disappointed! Stilton is a family tradition for us, so would love to see more recipes that include it. Thanks Christine!
with broccoli and stilton as the main two ingredients, I was confident that this would be delicious, and I wasn’t disappointed! Stilton is a family tradition for us, so would love to see more recipes that include it. Thanks Christine!
Thank you Christine. I have just put all the ingredients in the cooker and switched it on. I can see it’s going to be delicious.
Oh that is lovely to hear – enjoy!
Hi there, planning on trying this this week but wondering if it is suitable for home freezing?
Thank you, Meisha
Yes it can be frozen and defrosts nicely in the microwave or on the hob. Enjoy 🙂
Sounds yum. I wanted to ask why you can’t add the Stilton in from the start? I would either have to add it with the other ingredients, or just before serving.. so would this be a problem?
Thanks
Hi Steph! Adding the stilton in from the start would likely result in the cheese separating and curdling a bit since it’s not really meant to be cooked for a long time. With the slow cooker being such a low heat it might be OK? But if you don’t want the extra step of adding it one hour before the end, just crumble it really fine and stir it in just before serving. The reason I add it close to the end is so it gets a chance to melt, but it will melt in really quickly anyway if it’s in small enough pieces. I feel like I should revisit this recipe and add some extra notes so thanks for the prompt. Hope it goes well for you! 🙂
can I cook this without using a blender
Sure, you could probably use a potato masher to get it fairly smooth – it won’t be completely pureed and would have some texture but it should be good anyway!
Just made this and really impressed how easy and the results are great.