This cheesy vegetable chowder is packed with veggies and flavor! It’s one of my family’s all-time favorite dinner recipes. Perfect for chilly evenings.
This recipe has a long history with my little family. I got the original version from my sister-in-law when my husband and I were newlyweds. We had just moved into our condo with the bright red kitchen. I have such fond memories of that kitchen!
Anyway, the only veggies in the recipe back in those days were potatoes, and it called for turkey bacon. I remember thinking “heck no!” to turkey bacon and using regular bacon instead. It made the soup soooooo salty; it’s a wonder I kept making it after that, although I never again used bacon of any kind! And it originally only served 2, which was fine at the time but not really enough for a growing family.
Fast-forward seven years and it has morphed into a cheesy, comforting vegetable chowder packed with veggies that are good for you, and give the soup some much-needed color! It is one of our family favorites–even the kids love it–and now that the weather has cooled off a little, will resume its weekly appearance on our dinner menu.
Cheesy Vegetable Chowder has consistently been one of the most popular recipes here on Lulu the Baker since I first shared it. I love hearing from readers who make it for their families once and love it so much that they add it to their own regular recipe rotation. I know you’ll love it too.
*If you’re looking for crockpot directions for Cheesy Vegetable Chowder, several commenters have left their instructions in the comments section below!
Cheesy Vegetable Chowder
This is one of my family's all-time favorite dinner recipes! It is easy to make and tastes delicious.
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup finely chopped carrot
- 1 celery stick, finely chopped (feel free to add more celery if you like celery; I don't, so I don't add much)
- 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
- 4 cups chicken broth (I usually use a mixture of low-sodium chicken broth and broth made with chicken soup base because it gives it such nice flavor)
- 2 large baking potatoes, peeled and chopped
- 1 Tablespoon flour
- 1/2 cup water
- 2/3 cup milk
- 2 cups chopped broccoli
- 2 heaping cups shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
Melt the butter in a large soup pot. Add onions, carrots, and celery and saute over medium heat until tender. Add garlic and cook 1 or 2 additional minutes. Add chicken broth and potatoes, bring to a boil, and cook until potatoes are tender. Mix flour with water, add, and simmer until soup is slightly thickened. Add milk and broccoli and cook until broccoli is just tender and soup is heated through. Stir in cheese, allow to melt, and serve.
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Made this tonight and put in lots of extra cheese. It was great with whole wheat beer bread! Yum!!!
MKM–I never actually measure the cheese. My husband shreds a big pile and I throw it all in–it is always delicious!
SO easy and oh SO yummy!! My only alteration was to use 1/2 and 1/2 rather than milk. This soup could easily be whipped up for a weeknight meal and is a great option for those vegetarian days ~ thank you for sharing!
Hi Tara. I use whole milk if we have it, never ever ever skim, and I think 1/2 and 1/2 would make it so luxurious!!
I use a similar recipe along the same lines, I puree all the veggies to make it smooth….it really is amazing
Hi Shannon. We’ve pureed on the few occasions where the consistency turned out weird, and that always fixes the problem!
Yum! I’m going to take a stab at this later on in the week. I can’t wait š
Hope you love it Trish!
Very tasty! Just made it with some bannock and it got gobbled up! š
Found this on Pinterest and I made it tonight. It was delicious. My little ones loved it! I wanted to use frozen broccoli but my tiny little grocery store was all out because they had it on sale so I ended up using the broccoli cauliflower mix and it was great. I love that you can mix and match the veggies to your own taste. I’ll be using this for a regular now š
Thanks!
Hi Karma. That’s one of my favorite things about this soup too–that you can use pretty much whatever veggies you have on-hand and it always tastes yummy!
Just made this today and it is deeeeeeelicious! My picky eaters love it! I tweaked it a lil because I doubled, possibly tripled it, and I still came out good. I added fresh sweet corn at the end & it gave it a little added crunch. Great recipe! š
I bet the corn made it extra tasty!
I’m trying to figure out if a stalk of celery means the entire stalk (the package of celery all clumped together is called a stalk) or if it means just one of the individual pieces from the stalk. I’m assuming you don’t mean the whole stalk, seems like a ton of celery!
Rootbeer–you are correct! Thanks for pointing that out! I don’t really know what you call one stick of celery. I guess one stick of celery, but that sounds stupid!
Made it tonight…Added Salt, fresh cracked peppercorn, wanted to add thyme (but I was out) still needed more herbs/spice. Also should have used red potatoes instead of russet potatoes and more broccoli.
I usually use whatever potatoes I happen to have on hand. Lately, it’s been fingerlings, and the soup always turns out great regardless!
could you use Vegetable broth to make it vegetarian?
smada5–I haven’t tried vegetable broth, but I’m sure it would turn out exactly the same. The only thing I would think you might have to adjust is the seasoning. Good luck!
Well, I have been looking for just something like this. My DH just had all his teeth removed and was given dentures. However, the lowers hurt so bad he wasn’t able to put them in and now the gums have healed different from the original impressions. Sooo, I plan on making this and then running it through the blender to make it a more liquid soup, but still all the nutrition. Hope it works out. I know it will be delicious as is. Thanks for sharing.
Cardscrapper–I hope this worked out for you!
I made this for dinner last night for myself, husband and 16 month old daughter and we all loved it! I also made my daughter some bread spoons to help her eat it and she really enjoyed it. So glad we’ve got enough left over to have again tonight! Perfect recipe for the chilly weather we’ve got over here in the UK right now and this recipe is definitely going to be putting in a regular appearance š Thanks for sharing it x
I’m glad it was a hit with everyone in your family Victoria!
This is a really simple recipe. I regularly blend my soups, going to try this recipe soon,it might be nice to add some shredded chicken to make it a one pot meal.
Mary–I think chicken would be a delicious addition! Best of luck!
Thank you for the recipe. I made it tonight, and it was delish – for the kids too! As vegetarians, we substituted veggie broth. Making this again soon, for sure š
Hi Michelle. I’m glad it was delicious with the veggie broth!
just made this tonight and it was delish – thank you!
can this be made in the crockpot? if so how long do you think it should cook?
Hi Sarah. I’ve never made it in a crockpot, but a lot of the commenters here have. If you scroll through the comments you should be able to find a few different sets of instructions for making it in the crockpot. Good luck!!
This was sooo good!!!! Thank you!! It didn’t really thicken… not sure what i did wrong there? But it was delicious anyway! My hubby loved it too!
Hi Melissa. I’m glad you both loved it, even if it didn’t exactly turn out the way it was supposed to! š
We love this soup! Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
You are welcome Jodi!
Made this tonight and it was AMAZING! I’m on a vegetable soup kick right now and this is the best soup I’ve ever made, maybe even had! Ever! The only thing I did different was double the recipe so I could take some to work for lunch tomorrow š
I’m so glad that it worked out for you and that you loved it! And doubling it was a great idea; it is even better the next day!
I made this tonight but being a vegetarian I switch to vegetable broth and 2 cans cream of celery. Both my little kids loved it. I actually stuck some extra broccoli and extra carrots in the blended and chopped them rather fine to add even more veggies with out adding lots of chunks. I also added 3 celery stalks and a bit more onion. The more veggies the better. Thank you for the idea it sure beat whatever I would have made that Ive made a hundred times=)
I processed all the vegetables (except the potatoes) in a mini food processor as my food challenged children are not big veggie fans! It certainly cut down on the cooking time. We loved this soup!
I’ve thought about using my stick blender to make it smoother, just to see if we like even more than we already do–Great idea!
Just finished my first batch in the crock pot. The cheddar cheese clumped up so I removed it ( stuck to the whisk so was easy to remove most of it). Added Velveeta instead and have to say it is awesome. Am going to try to freeze it and also will be having this for lunch at work. Thanks for this easy and delicious recipe.
I’m actually a Velveeta fan, so I’m glad to know that it worked out in this soup! I have found that the cheddar melts better when the soup is thicker.
I made a pot of this tonight for an early dinner. It is perfect for the fal weather š
We always love when the weather turns chilly and we can start have this soup on a weekly basis!
I substituted 12 ounces of the liquid (water & broth) for a can of beer and used vegetable broth base to make this vegetarian friendly. A household favorite after the first bite!
It always makes me happy to hear that somebody changed the recipe to suit their needs and loved it!
This was delicious! I made it for dinner last night. My 20 month old ate 3 bowls!
Thank you!
So glad to hear that, Marissa! My 15 month-old is going through a super-picky phase; hopefully in 5 more months he’ll love it too!
Found you on Pinterest, OF COURSE, and finally made this tonight! Oh my goodness it’s great! I used vegetable broth, chunkier cuts of veggies and a blend of cheddars- and it’s AWESOME! I’m adding it to my blog as the first easy, family friendly, fall recipe review. Thanks so much for sharing! š
http://thoroughlymodernlindsey.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the link-up Lindsey! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe! š
Found this on Pinterest today and had it for dinner tonight…it was delicious!!! I added some potato flakes at the end because it didn’t thicken as much as I wanted it to. My husband said it was a keeper! (felt good on my sore throat too)
Potato flakes are a great idea, Ida!
Love this quick, easy & veggie filled soup! The kids ate it up with no complaints. I thickened my soup with a scoop of mashed potato flakes at the end, instead of the flour, and it turned out very well. Thanks for the “pinspiration”!
Glad it was a hit with your kids! That’s always a challenge, isn’t it?!
Attention all crockpot lovers…i made a SUCCESSFUL pot of this DELICIOUS soup and here’s how:
I placed 2 cans of vegetable broth (im a vegetarian) in the crockpot with all the other ingredients minus the water, flour, cheese and milk. I saw the previous recommendation of 4cups of broth being too much but i added a cup more of broccoli and OMITTED the water to “make up” for it – it was still kinda runny but ill explain more about that later. Instead of celery and carrots, i used a broccoli slaw mix sold in the produce section at the grocery store next to all the bagged lettuce etc. I cut up 2 medium potatoes (skin on-i like it better that way) I used frozen broccoli and fresh onion. I didn’t saute anything, just plopped it all in. im pretty lazy. I added salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes and put crockpot on high for 5-6 hours. then once the potatoes were soft, i heated up fat free half and half in place of the milk to make it more creamy i added 1 tbsp of flour and stirred to make a rue. it didn’t quite make it and thicker so i added the runny rue to the crockpot and stirred as i put in cornstarch. i stirred until it was a consistency i wanted. then i added 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese stirred and stirred some more. i put it back to low for about a half an hour and then i ate it. i ate a lot of it. it was good and came out great. hope this solves everyone’s crockpot question. i took on the challenge and i succeeded happily š
Thanks for the directions Erin! I’ll make a note at the bottom of the post to let people know there are good crockpot directions down here.
This soup is delicious! The weather is cooler and I have been looking for a great new soup. Thank You! You have a fun site and I’m looking forward to spending more time looking through it and making some more of your recipes. I totally agree about the Carmelitas… greatest dessert ever! And as my Mom used to say.. they have oatmeal in them so that makes them breakfast bars. Brilliant.
Hi Katie! I’m glad you like the soup, and enjoy browsing the recipe archives! And yes, Carmelitas make delicious breakfast bars, lol!