In a large pot, melt the butter or ghee on medium heat and cook the garlic for about 1 minute

Add the broth, broccoli, heavy cream, salt and pepper and bring to a boil

Simmer the soup covered for about 20 minutes, or until the broccoli is tender

Reduce the heat to low and blend the soup with an immersion/stick blender. If you want to keep chunks of broccoli, you can either use a slotted spoon to take some out, or just blend until most of it is pureed

Turn off the heat and add in the cheddar cheese about 1/2 cup at a time and immediately blend using your immersion blender. If you saved some broccoli for texture, return it to the soup and stir. This is a trick I learned from reading other bloggers and reading cookbooks for this post - blending the cheddar cheese into the soup helps not only to thicken but it prevents the cheese from getting clumpy in the soup

Serve hot with extra cheddar cheese sprinkled on top (and I added a crazy of fresh pepper to garnish too). Bread bowl optional. :)