Loaded Broccoli Potato Soup: 22g Protein

By Annette

Loaded Broccoli Potato Soup: 22g Protein

Cheesy, creamy, loaded with broccoli and bacon. The kind of soup your family actually asks for.

Most versions of this would give you maybe 10 to 12g of protein a bowl. This one doubles it with one swap you won’t taste.

We’re talking about a proper dinner-worthy soup that sits at 22g per serving, with real vegetables, real cheese, and real staying power.

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đź“Š The Macros

🥩 PROTEIN: 22g

Calories 480 · Carbs 22g · Fat 32g · Fiber 5g Protein density: 4.6g protein per 100 calories Serves 8 · about 40 minutes · makes a big, freezable pot

Four cups of shredded cheddar and six strips of bacon do serious protein work here.

The Fairlife swap below is the one change that pushes this over 20g honestly. Same soup, same flavor, better macros.

🍳 The Recipe

Loaded Broccoli Potato Soup. Serves 8. One big pot, under an hour start to finish.

The cheese sauce is a separate pan, but it takes less than 10 minutes. Don’t skip it. That’s where the soup’s body comes from.

Ingredients

  • 2 cans (14.5 oz each) chicken broth
  • 4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed small
  • 2 to 3 large carrots, peeled and diced
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 2 small heads broccoli, washed and diced small
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 3.5 cups ultra-filtered high-protein milk (like Fairlife) (the lever, see The Swap)
  • 4 cups shredded cheddar cheese (the protein workhorse here)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp garlic pepper
  • 6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (for topping)

Method

  1. In a large pot, combine chicken broth, potatoes, carrots, and onion powder. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer 10 minutes.
  2. Add broccoli, cover, and simmer another 10 minutes until everything is tender.
  3. While that simmers: melt butter in a separate saucepan. Whisk in flour and cook 1 minute until golden. Whisk in the Fairlife milk and cook 5 minutes until the sauce thickens.
  4. Add cheddar to the sauce and stir until fully melted. Season with salt and garlic pepper.
  5. Pour the cheese sauce into the vegetable pot and stir to combine. Add more milk to thin if needed.
  6. Ladle into bowls and top with crumbled bacon.

Make-ahead: keeps 4 days in the fridge. Freeze without the bacon topping for best texture. Reheat gently over low heat.

Making this? Reply and tell me if you added anything extra. I love hearing what people do to their soup.

🔄 The Swap

Swap the regular milk for ultra-filtered high-protein milk (like Fairlife). That’s the one change that makes this a 20g+ recipe.

Regular milk brings about 8g of protein per cup. Fairlife brings 13g per cup. Over 3.5 cups, that’s 17.5g of additional protein in the whole pot, which works out to about 2g more per serving.

It sounds small, but without it, this soup lands at roughly 19g per serving. With it, you’re at 22g. Flavor-wise, Fairlife is creamier than regular milk, so the soup actually gets better.

No Fairlife? Add an extra cup of shredded cheddar or stir in half a cup of cottage cheese blended smooth. Both do the job.

🔬 The Science

Why does a protein-loaded soup feel more satisfying than a creamy potato soup with the same calories?

It comes down to how your hunger hormones read the meal. Protein suppresses ghrelin (the “go find food” signal) more effectively than carbs or fat does. A cheese-and-vegetable-heavy soup sends a strong satiety signal, while a potato-heavy one mostly runs on carbs.

Cheddar is an underrated protein food. An ounce delivers 7g of protein. Four cups of shredded cheddar in this recipe contributes about 112g of protein across the whole pot. Cheese isn’t just a flavoring here. It’s structural.

For midlife women especially, the calcium-protein combination matters. Dairy protein and calcium together support both muscle maintenance and bone density, and they’re doing it in the same bite.

[QUOTABLE] Cheese isn’t the indulgence. It’s the protein. The soup is the delivery system.

đź’ˇ The Takeaway

This is the soup that turns “I don’t cook on weeknights” into dinner for a week.

Make the pot on Sunday. It feeds eight. It gets better as it sits. And every bowl delivers more protein than most people eat in two meals.

Send this to someone who thinks eating more protein means giving up the foods she loves. She’s going to want to see this.

If you want a whole week of meals like this, planned out and macro-verified:

Download the free 7-Day 120g-Protein Meal Plan Seven days, 120g protein each day, a real grocery list, honest macros on every single meal.

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Written by Annette. Real food, honest macros, not medical advice.

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