Jamie Oliver Broccoli Soup & Cheesy Soldiers

Jamie Oliver’s broccoli soup and cheesy soldiers air-fries frozen broccoli and spring onions until soft, blitzes them in the drawer with Cheddar, a stock cube, parsley and boiling water, then heats the soup through for a final 5 minutes. Cheesy, seed-crusted toast soldiers cook in the small drawer alongside. It serves two in 28 minutes at 487 kcal.

The recipe is from Easy Air Fryer (2024), and the whole point is proving that the air fryer can make soup, which most people wouldn’t think to try. You cook the vegetables, blitz them with a hand blender directly in the drawer (no transferring, no separate pot), add boiling water and the remaining ingredients, then let the air fryer bring it to piping hot. Zero pans, zero hobs.

The cheesy soldiers are the finishing touch. A thick slice of bread has mixed seeds pressed into the surface, olive oil drizzled over and Cheddar grated on top, then air-fries at 180°C for 7 minutes into a crunchy, seeded, cheesy dipper. They crisp in the small drawer while the soup finishes in the large one, so both arrive hot at the same moment.

Jamie Oliver Broccoli Soup & Cheesy Soldiers

Recipe by Pinch Perfect

5.0 from 1 vote

Course: Soups, Dinner, LunchCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy

Servings

2

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

18

minutes

Calories

487

kcal

Total time

28

minutes

Jamie Oliver’s air-fryer soup from Easy Air Fryer: frozen broccoli roasted soft and blitzed in the drawer with Cheddar, stock and parsley, served with seed-crusted cheesy toast soldiers. Soup from an air fryer, no hob, no pot. Serves two.

Ingredients

• 400g frozen broccoli

• 4 spring onions

• olive oil

• 20g mixed seeds, such as sunflower, pumpkin, linseeds, poppy

• 1 large slice of bread (100g)

• 80g Cheddar cheese

• 1 organic veg stock cube

• 1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley (30g)

• optional: extra virgin olive oil

• Kit:a 2-drawer air fryer and a hand blender.

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Directions

• Cook the broccoli:Remove the shelf from the large air-fryer drawer, add the frozen broccoli, trim and roughly chop the spring onions and add them. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, season and toss well. Cook for 15 minutes at 200°C until soft, shaking occasionally.
• Make the soldiers:Press the mixed seeds into the surface of the bread, drizzle with 1 teaspoon of oil and grate over a layer of Cheddar. Cook in the small drawer for 7 minutes at 180°C until golden and crisp. Slice into soldiers.
• Blitz the soup:Remove the large drawer. Grate in the remaining Cheddar, crumble in the stock cube, tear in most of the parsley (stalks and all) and pour over 400ml of boiling water. Blitz with a hand blender until smooth, adding more water if needed. Season.
• Heat through:Return the drawer and cook for 5 minutes at 180°C until piping hot.
• Serve:Divide between mugs or bowls, pick over the remaining parsley and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Serve with the cheesy soldiers for dipping.

FAQs

Can an air fryer really make soup?

Yes, and Oliver proves it here. The air fryer roasts the frozen broccoli and spring onions in the drawer at 200°C until soft, which concentrates their flavour through dry heat rather than diluting it in boiling water. Then you blitz directly in the drawer with a hand blender, add boiling water and let the air fryer bring everything to a simmer for a final 5 minutes.

The result is genuinely different from hob-boiled broccoli soup, because roasting the broccoli first caramelises it slightly and gives the soup a deeper, sweeter, more concentrated flavour. It’s not just a gimmick: the air fryer is doing something a saucepan can’t easily replicate.

Why frozen broccoli?

Convenience and consistency. Frozen broccoli is blanched and frozen at peak freshness, so it’s always the same quality and doesn’t need trimming or washing. It goes from freezer to drawer to bowl without defrosting, which keeps the recipe genuinely fast.

Fresh broccoli works too: chop it into florets, add 5 minutes to the initial cooking time since it’s denser, and it’ll roast beautifully. The frozen version is Oliver’s 20-minute-mindset at work: fewer steps, less prep, same result.

What bread makes the best soldiers?

A thick, dense slice with structure: sourdough, bloomer or a good farmhouse white. The bread needs to support the weight of the seeds and melted cheese without going floppy, and it needs to toast firm enough to dip into the soup without collapsing. Oliver specifies 100g for one large slice, so this is a generous, thick piece.

The seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, linseed, poppy) are pressed into the surface before cooking, so they embed into the bread as the cheese melts and sets around them. It’s a different thing from a plain cheese toastie: the seeds add crunch, nuttiness and texture.

Can I make this with a single-drawer air fryer?

Yes, just cook in sequence. Roast the broccoli and blitz the soup first, then pour into bowls to stay warm while you cook the cheesy soldiers in the same drawer. It adds a few minutes but works perfectly well, and Oliver’s own note acknowledges that not everyone has a dual-drawer machine.

For a similar single-drawer Oliver soup, his bread and borlotti bean soup from 20-Minute Meals is a hob-cooked soup that also uses bread as a structural ingredient rather than a side, though in that case the bread goes into the pot rather than on the side.

Can I freeze the soup?

Yes. Cool completely, pour into containers and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight and reheat gently, either in the air fryer, in a pan or in the microwave. The Cheddar and parsley keep their flavour well after freezing, and a splash of water loosens it if it thickens.

Make the soldiers fresh when you reheat, since they take 7 minutes and lose their crunch overnight. Having batches of this soup in the freezer alongside Oliver’s other freezer-friendly recipes, like the pressure cooker bolognese, gives you a proper quick-meal rotation.

What else could I serve alongside instead of soldiers?

The soldiers are the fun part, and children particularly enjoy the dipping, but the soup stands alone without them. A chunk of crusty bread, a warm pitta or even a grilled cheese sandwich alongside are all good. A swirl of cream or a scatter of crispy croutons also lifts a bowl.

For a fuller meal, this soup works as a starter before something from the same book: his chicken and mushroom pastry parcels or lamb kofta would follow nicely, since the light, green soup leads naturally into a richer main.