Nigella Lawson’s broccoli and Stilton soup, in one breath? Bag of frozen broccoli, a few spring onions, garlic oil, a hunk of Stilton, hot stock, five minutes of simmering, then the blender. Twenty minutes, tops. Feeds 4 hungry people for supper, or 8 if it’s a starter.
She put it in Nigella Express way back in 2007, so it’s hardly news. Except that on Saturday 17 October 2026 the Daily Express ran a story basically begging people to quit boiling frozen broccoli and make this instead, and by the afternoon Google had “nigella lawson frozen broccoli recipe” flagged as a breakout search across the UK. Funny old internet.
Quick Facts
- Total time: about 20 minutes (5 minutes prep)
- Serves: 4 as a main, 8 as a starter
- Difficulty: Easy, one pan plus a blender
- Key ingredients: frozen broccoli, Stilton, spring onions, garlic oil, vegetable stock
- Freezes: Yes, up to 2 to 3 months
What’s in This Article
- Why Frozen Broccoli Works Better Here
- Ingredients and Swaps
- How to Make Nigella’s Broccoli and Stilton Soup
- Thick or Thin: Getting the Texture Right
- Why This Soup Is Everywhere Right Now
- Why Broccoli Soup Goes Wrong
- Variations
- What to Serve With It
- Storing, Freezing and Reheating
- FAQ
Fridge empty, freezer not? This is your Tuesday night sorted.
RECIPE
Nigella Broccoli and Stilton Soup
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp garlic-infused olive oil 45 ml
- 6 spring onions (scallions) finely chopped
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 kg frozen broccoli 2 1/4 lb, no need to thaw
- 1.25 litres hot vegetable stock 5 cups, from a cube or concentrate; use 1 litre for a thicker soup
- 200 g Stilton 7 oz (about 1 1/2 cups), crumbled
- black pepper freshly ground, to taste
- 1 long red chilli deseeded and finely chopped, optional
Method
- Heat the garlic oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the spring onions and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring, until soft but not browned.
- Tip in the frozen broccoli straight from the bag with the thyme and stir for 1 minute so everything is coated in the oil.
- Pour in the hot stock and crumble in the Stilton. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook gently for 5 minutes, until a floret squashes easily against the side of the pan.
- Blend until smooth with a stick blender, or in batches in a jug blender filled no more than halfway, holding a tea towel over the lid.
- Return the soup to the pan and reheat gently without boiling. Season with black pepper and sprinkle with chopped red chilli if you like.
Notes
- Thicker soup: use 800 ml to 1 litre of stock instead of 1.25 litres.
- Fresh broccoli: use 1 kg, peel and chop the stalks, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes.
- Salt: the stock and Stilton are already salty, so taste before adding any.
- Vegetarian: use vegetable stock and check the Stilton is made with vegetarian rennet.
- Storage: fridge 3 to 4 days; freezer 2 to 3 months. Reheat gently and re-blend if grainy.
Private Notes
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!Why Frozen Broccoli Works Better Here
This isn’t me being lazy, promise. Nigella says it in her own notes: the soup’s better with frozen broccoli, and it’s handy to have as a standby for nights you didn’t plan anything. I’d go one step further and say I actually prefer the colour.
Here’s why. Bagged frozen broccoli is blanched before it’s frozen, so it goes into your pan already half cooked and still bright green. Five minutes in hot stock and it’s soft enough to blitz. Fresh heads, thick stalks and all, need closer to 15 or 20 minutes, and somewhere around minute twelve the green starts sliding toward khaki. Not a crime, just less pretty.
Plus there’s no faffing about weighing. One kilo bag, in it goes. Done.
Bit of trivia while we’re here: Nigella Lawson built the whole Express book around food you can get on the table after work, and this soup is pretty much the poster child for that idea.
Ingredients and Swaps
Eight things on the list, and the chilli’s optional, so really seven. If your shop’s out of something, the table’s got you.
| Ingredient | Amount | Swap | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frozen broccoli | 1 kg (2 1/4 lb) | Fresh broccoli, stalks peeled and chopped | Needs 15-20 min simmer |
| Stilton | 200 g (7 oz) | Gorgonzola, Danish blue or Roquefort | Milder or saltier, still blue |
| Garlic-infused oil | 3 tbsp | Olive oil + 2 sliced garlic cloves | Slightly sharper garlic |
| Spring onions | 6 | 1 small onion or 2 leeks, finely sliced | Sweeter, needs 5 more min |
| Vegetable stock | 1.25 litres (5 cups) | Chicken stock | Richer, no longer vegetarian |
| Dried thyme | 2 tsp | 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves | Fresher, more herby |
Now, the cheese. Proper Stilton has PDO protection, which means it’s only allowed to be made in Derbyshire, Leicestershire or Nottinghamshire, and weirdly not in the village of Stilton itself. (The history of Stilton is a lovely little rabbit hole.) If you’re in the US and it costs a small fortune, grab whatever creamy blue your store has. Nobody’s checking.
And go easy on salt. Stock cube plus blue cheese is already a salty pair, which is exactly why Nigella only reaches for the pepper mill. Taste first. Then taste again.
How to Make Nigella’s Broccoli and Stilton Soup
First soup from frozen veg? Lucky you, this one’s very forgiving. The card above has all the amounts; here’s what it actually looks and smells like as you go.
Soften the Onions
Garlic oil into a big saucepan, medium heat, then the spring onions. Couple of minutes, a stir here and there. They’ll go floppy and smell sweet. Don’t let them brown, we’re not making a stir-fry.
Broccoli and Thyme In
Straight from the bag, no thawing. Tip the broccoli in with the thyme and push it round the pan for a minute so everything gets a lick of that oniony oil. Expect some hissing and spitting. Totally normal.
Stock, Stilton, Five Minutes
Pour in your hot stock, crumble the Stilton over the top and bring it up to a simmer. Lid on. Five minutes. You’ll know it’s ready when a floret squashes flat against the side of the pan with the back of a spoon.
Blitz and Season
Stick blender straight in the pan is the least washing up. Using a jug blender? Do it in batches, never more than half full, and keep a tea towel pressed on the lid, because hot soup expands and you really don’t want to find out what happens when you forget. Back in the pan, warm it through, loads of black pepper. Red chilli on top if you fancy a kick.
Thick or Thin: Getting the Texture Right
Nigella’s soup comes out quite silky and thin, the sort you could drink from a mug. Loads of people who’ve cooked it say they’d rather have it thicker. Easy enough, you just hold back some stock.
| Stock | Texture | Best for | Tip |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.25 litres (5 cups) | Silky, pourable | Starters, mugs | Nigella’s original |
| 1 litre (4 cups) | Creamy, medium | Supper with bread | Good middle ground |
| 800 ml (3 1/3 cups) | Thick, spoonable | Main course, freezing | Thin later if needed |
If you can’t decide, go with 1 litre. Adding a splash more hot stock after blending is easy, getting it back out is not.
Can You Make It in a Soup Maker?
You can, and loads of people in the UK are googling exactly that. If your machine hasn’t got a sauté button, soften the spring onions in a pan first. Everything else except the Stilton goes in, then run the smooth setting and stir the cheese through at the end so it melts in the leftover heat. One warning though: a whole kilo of broccoli plus 1.25 litres of stock is a lot for most soup makers. Check the max line, and you’ll probably want to drop to 800 ml or a litre, or just do two rounds.
Why This Soup Is Everywhere Right Now
- That Express story. Saturday 17 October 2026, the Daily Express told readers to stop boiling frozen broccoli and make Nigella’s soup. AOL UK and WalesOnline carried it too, and commenters chimed in saying it takes them about 15 minutes.
- A Google breakout. Within hours, Google Trends had “nigella lawson frozen broccoli recipe” listed as a breakout in the UK. That’s their label for a jump so big it goes off the scale.
- Clocks going back. UK clocks change on Sunday 25 October this year. Dark at five, cold out, and suddenly a bowl of hot green soup sounds like the best idea ever.
Nigella’s original is still up on her own website. I’ve kept her method exactly, and added US cup measures, a thickness chart, soup maker notes and freezing tips.
Why Did My Broccoli Soup Go Wrong?
Most broccoli soup disasters come down to cooking it too long, boiling the cheese, salting too early or getting brave with the blender. Here’s what each looks like and the fix.
- Dull, khaki colour. It sat on the heat too long. Frozen broccoli really only needs the five minutes, so set a timer.
- Grainy, split texture. The Stilton got a hard boil. Keep it to a lazy simmer, and go slow when you reheat.
- Far too salty. Strong stock cube meets salty blue cheese. Low-salt stock, and no salt till the very end, if at all.
- Stringy bits. Fresh stalks weren’t peeled. Not really an issue with frozen.
- Soup on the ceiling. Overfilled blender jug. Half full, towel on top, always.
Variations
Broccoli and Cheddar Version
Blue cheese not your thing? Swap in 200 g of grated mature Cheddar and stir it through after blending. You end up with something close to the American broccoli cheddar soup everyone’s searching for this autumn, only a bit thinner.
Potato for Body
One spud makes a surprising difference. Peel a medium one, dice it small (1 cm-ish), drop it in with the stock and let the whole lot go 12 minutes rather than 5. Thicker, a bit more filling, and you didn’t have to open a carton of cream.
Lighter Starter
Halve the Stilton in the pan to 100 g, then scatter a few little nuggets on each bowl right before it goes to the table. Funny thing is, it tastes cheesier this way, because the first mouthful hits a proper crumb of blue.
Chilli Oil Finish
Forget the fresh chilli and swirl a bit of crispy chilli oil over the top. Weirdly good with the Stilton.
What to Serve With Broccoli and Stilton Soup
Bread, obviously. Warm baguette, thick toast from a sourdough loaf slathered in salty butter, the heel of whatever’s knocking about in the bread bin. Hungry lot? Stick a cheese toastie on the side and nobody will ask what’s for pudding.
Stilton loves a bit of sweetness, so a dollop of my spiced pear chutney on a cracker alongside is really lovely. Running low on ideas? My list of easy sides for soup works just as well with this one.
Storing, Freezing and Reheating
Leftovers? Let the pan cool a bit, then into the fridge within a couple of hours. Kept in a lidded tub, you’ve got 3 to 4 days, which lines up with the FoodSafety.gov chart for soups.
Freezing half is a smart move. It lasts a good 2 to 3 months, just don’t fill the tubs to the brim since liquid swells as it freezes. When you want it, warm it slowly on the hob and keep stirring. If it comes back a bit grainy, blame the Stilton, it sulks after a spell in the freezer. Thirty seconds with the stick blender and it’s silky again. Get it properly piping hot before anyone tucks in.
FAQ
What book is Nigella’s broccoli and Stilton soup in?
Nigella Express, her 2007 book (and TV series) of quick weeknight food. You don’t need the book though, the recipe’s free on her website. Serves 4 as a main or 8 as a starter, and it’s frozen broccoli, Stilton, spring onions, garlic oil, thyme and veg stock.
Can I use fresh broccoli instead of frozen?
Sure. About 1 kg of fresh broccoli, stalks peeled and chopped, simmered for 15 to 20 minutes rather than 5. Some folks hold the Stilton back until the last few minutes when they go fresh, so it isn’t bubbling away for a quarter of an hour.
Why does Nigella say frozen broccoli is better?
Mostly speed and colour. Bagged broccoli has been blanched already, so 5 minutes and it’s soft, still green, and blends like a dream. And there’s always a bag in the freezer when you’ve got nothing planned, which is her whole point: she calls it more convenient for an impromptu standby.
Can you freeze broccoli and Stilton soup?
You can, for roughly 2 to 3 months. Portion it, thaw it in the fridge overnight, warm it gently. The blue cheese sometimes goes a little grainy on the way back, so give it a whizz with a stick blender and it’s smooth again.
What can I use instead of Stilton?
Any soft blue will do the trick. Gorgonzola if you like it creamy and gentle, Danish blue if you’re on a budget, Roquefort if you want it punchy and salty. Can’t stand blue cheese? Grab a mature Cheddar and you’ve basically got broccoli cheese soup.
Is broccoli and Stilton soup vegetarian?
It can be. Use vegetable stock, then have a look at the Stilton label, since some are made with animal rennet. UK supermarkets usually mark the vegetarian ones pretty clearly on the pack.
Go On, Raid the Freezer
Tiny tip before you go: crumble your Stilton first, before the hob’s even on, or it’ll sit in a sad lump at the bottom of the pan. If you give this a go, I’d love a star rating in the recipe card, and tell me in the comments, thick or thin? Pin it for the next grey evening. Still in a soup mood after? My roasted butternut squash soup is calling.
