I have scary memories of all of those “Cream of” canned soups.
Anyone?
For some reason my dad used to love those canned soups. Depending on the day it could’ve been Cream of Mushroom, Cream of Broccoli, or Cream of Chicken. He’s probably eating one right now, actually. I’d watch in fear as he cranked open the can, plunked the soup into a pot (which of course, came out in a single can-shape), and added a can of milk to break apart the “soup jello”.
I was not down with that, even at the wise age of 8.
I always preferred to eat soup that didn’t come out in a single lump. Clear broths, like vegetable soup, were more my style. I also loved canned tomato soup like nobody’s business, especially with a million saltines crumbled over top. The saltines would get all mushy and saturated with tomato soup, allowing me to crush even more on top. Paired with a grilled cheese, that was just about my favourite meal as a kid.
Even though I never did take a liking to those creamed canned soups, I will admit a creamy soup sounds so comforting this time of the year. I figured I could probably come up with something a lot healthier and less processed in my own kitchen.
And with any luck…something that didn’t look like grey Jell-O.
After the weekend’s crazy holiday hijinks, I was craving comfort food, but I also wanted something that snuck in a bit of green. My recipe brainstorming session was pretty short because I was working at 30% functionality.
Idea #1: Roast broccoli and pour my 5-min cheeze sauce all over it. That sounded wonderful, but not quite a meal.
Idea #2: Make Cream of Broccoli soup made with cashew cream instead of dairy cream. I wasn’t really feeling the cashew cream though, so I tossed that idea for now.
Idea #3: I combined my broccoli and cheeze idea with my soup idea to make creamy Broccoli and Cheeze soup.
Idea #4: Toast bread and slather Earth Balance and garlic powder all over it. Forget the greens.
If it hadn’t been for this 12 days of healthy dinner challenge, I would’ve gone for idea #4! But my goal was a meal, so I compromised and combined ideas #3 and #4…
Jackpot.
Oh She Glows
Broccoli & Cheeze Soup
Healthy comfort food at its finest! This soup combines my love for broccoli and cheeze sauce, while doing without the cream or cheese. The prep is quite lengthy due to all the chopping, so I suggest using an electric chopper or processor if you want to speed things up. I finished the soup with a sprinkle of smoked paprika and Daiya cheese. Enjoy with your favorite croutons or even some breadsticks for dipping would be lovely. I didn’t have any croutons so I just double toasted some bread, spread it with Earth Balance, and a sprinkle of garlic powder. Yum!
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium sweet onion, chopped
- 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 4-4.5 cups chopped broccoli florets (2 heads, stems removed)
- 1.5 cups peeled & chopped potatoes (about 3)
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or crushed red pepper flakes)
- Low-fat vegan cheeze sauce, divided (see below for recipe)
- 1/2 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
- herbamare & onion powder, to taste
- Kosher salt & black pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup fresh minced parsley, plus more to garnish
- Daiya cheese, to garnish
- Smoked Paprika, to garnish (optional)
1. In a large skillet, heat the oil, onion, and garlic over medium-low heat, stirring frequently. Cook for about 5-6 mins.
2. Add in the celery, broccoli, and potatoes and cook for about 5 minutes. Now, add the broth, nutritional yeast, and cayenne pepper and simmer for another 15 mins or so until the potatoes are just fork tender.
3. Meanwhile, prepare your cheeze sauce (see below) while the soup simmers.
4. Carefully transfer the soup (in two batches) into a blender. Blend until almost smooth (I left it a bit chunky, but you can blend as much as you wish) and place back into the pot. Stir in the cheeze sauce, reserving 1/3 cup for later.
5. Stir in optional lemon juice, salt, pepper, and optional herbamare all to taste. Finally, stir in the minced parsley and spoon into bowls.
6. Top the soup with croutons, Daiya cheese, remaining cheeze sauce, and smoked paprika.
This soup was quite a lot of work, due to all the chopping. If you want to save time you can use a food processor or electric chopper to speed things up. Or maybe bribe your loved one to do it for you?
If you figure out how to do that, please let me know.
While the soup is simmering, make the cheeze sauce in a medium-sized saucepan. This sauce comes together in under 10 mins, so it’s the perfect busy work while you are waiting for the soup.
Oh She Glows
Low-Fat Vegan Cheeze Sauce (double batch)
Adapted from here. I basically just doubled my old recipe and added a couple extra spices.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 cup unsweetened, unflavoured almond milk
- 3/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp Earth Balance or other non-dairy buttery spread
- 2 tbsp all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp + 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1. In a skillet or pot, melt the Earth Balance over medium heat.
2. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour and 1/4 cup milk until all clumps are gone.
3. Whisk in the remaining milk (1.25 cups) as well as the milk and flour mixture into the pot. Now whisk in the nutritional yeast. Reduce heat to low-medium.
4. Add Dijon, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper to taste and whisk frequently over low heat until the sauce thickens up, for 3-5 minutes. Be careful not to burn it. Remove from heat once thick.
Set aside the cheeze sauce, and carefully transfer the soup in a blender in two batches (or just use an immersion blender!) and blend until almost smooth. I left it a bit chunky, but you can blend as much or as little as you wish.
Now stir in the cheeze sauce, reserving 1/3 cup for later:
Now we’re talking.
I also stirred in about 1/4 cup of Daiya cheese, but that is optional. Add the rest of the spices and seasonings to taste.
Serve with croutons, remaining cheeze sauce drizzled over top, a sprinkle of Daiya cheeze, and smoked paprika.
It’s creamy, filling, and healthy while satisfying a major craving for comfort food. Sadly, it didn’t last long…
Previous 12 Days of Healthy Dinner Recipe posts:
1) Naughty & Nice Vegan Enchilada Casserole
2) Over The Rainbow Cabbage Salad with Tahini-Lemon Dressing
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Want to see it in action? Check out my recipage and see how easy it is to search for ingredients, courses, and specific recipes.
{ 135 comments… read them below or add one }
I made this last night…my non-vegan hubby was licking the “cheese” pan clean and I had to fight him off the leftovers. Paired with my mom’s homemade vegan bread, this was exactly what the doctor ordered to chase away the winter blues! :-)
Just made this for dinner tonight and it was deeeeelicious! My husband says “this is the kind of thing I could just keep eating and eating til to got sick!”… Needless to say we both devoured it! Thanks Angela for the healthy and yummy recipes! So glad I found your blog! Incredibly helpful for a newly converted vegan! Have a Merry Christmas! ~Lesley
I’ve been having great success with all of your recipes lately, especially with my husband. This was another definite winner, so tasty!! We are both very excited for the leftovers. Hope your Grandfather continues to improve :) Merry Christmas!!
I’m trying this as SOON as I get back in my kitchen after vacation!!!
Thank you for a great vegan version of my favorite soup?
I saw this recipe this morning and couldn’t wait to try it out! So I stopped at the grocery store for broccoli on the way home from work and got to it. Halfway through chopping, I realized that I only had about a quarter of a cup of nooch! Not to be dissuaded, I skipped the bit that goes in with the veggies and put the end of the jar into the sauce. Then I added a big handful of cheddar daiya into the sauce and whisked so it melted in. I skipped the cayenne because I don’t care for it, and used a little fresh basil instead of the parsley because I had it on hand. The lemon juice is a brilliant addition – it really brightens up all the flavors. Totally delicious and comforting.
This soup was great! Great job! My 7 year old and 6 year ate it up. And, now I can make broccoli cheddar soup without velveta!! Thanks again!
That is some really nice looking broccoli soup!
Hi Angela! This soup sounds so freaking amazing and I can’t wait to make it tonight for me and the Hubs. I don’t have a stand-up blender or even an immesion blender (weird, I know) so I was wondering if you think using a hand-held mixer would work too in order to blend the soup and cheeze sauce?
Thanks again for the recipe! I heart your cheeze sauce (hmm, sorry if that sounded a little creepy :)
I used a handheld blender and it worked perfectly….I just stuck it right in the pot so I didn’t have as many dishes to clean.
Made this the other night and it really is a lovely soup. It’s perfect comfort food on a wintery night…don’t forget homemade, crispy croutons…mmmm….can’t wait to make it again!
Looks incredilbe yummy. Will try it for dinner tomorrow. I used to make this soup with cream cheese back in my vegetarian days and really missed it since going vegan.
Thanks, Angie, for bringing this delightful soup back into my life LOL !
Hello Angela,
thanks for sharing this great recipe. I made it yesterday evening – after a few days of rather poor food choices (I was just too lazy to cook) I felt it was about time to get back on track. The soup turned out very tasty – it was the first time I ever made a vegan cheese sauce YUM.
I left out the celery, though, because I don’t like the taste and I only had sweet potatoes on hand, so I used them.
OMG, this was a great dinner and I have so much soup left for tonight, too LOL! Can’t wait to get home…
Hey Stefanie, Im happy to hear you enjoyed the soup!
I made this for dinner tonight and my husband and I loved it! It was absolutely delicious. Creamy, filling, rich and healthy. So tasty! Thanks for the recipe and gorgeous pics!
I finally made this soup and it is great! I love the cheeze sauce with the broccoli and other veggies (though my fiance said he tasted something he wasn’t sure about….. not that it stopped him from eating it two days in a row. I told him it was the mustard). Yum!
Does anyone know if this would freeze or can well? I have loads of Broc that needs to be preserved and I love the idea of doing a soup to have in the fall or winter.
Does this soup freeze well?
Hi Amy, I’m sorry I’m not sure as I haven’t tried freezing it before. If you do try it please let me know. Someone might have mentioned it in the comments too, so it might be worth scanning to see if anyone reported freezing it. goodluck!
We’ve frozen it before, and it turned out well when thawed and reheated. It’s a favourite in our home.
Glad to hear that Leslie!
“I’d watch in fear as he cranked open the can, plunked the soup into a pot (which of course, came out in a single can-shape), and added a can of milk to break apart the “soup jello”.
I was not down with that, even at the wise age of 8.”
^ Ahaha!:p
Not a fan of canned cream-of soups here either
I’ll be making this broccoli cheeze dish soon, (once the heat waves in LA break)
Looks great
Got all ready to make this but I don’t have the Herbamare item/ingredient, will have to check if the Whole Foods near me has it
Can you freeze this?
Most soups tend to freeze quite well, so I would guess this would be fine too!
LOVE IT!!! I have had a pregnant craving for broccoli and potato soup for days and this hit the spot:) My 2 year old even loves it! I will be making a big batch to freeze for after our newest addition arrives in a few weeks. Great recipe, super easy!
I found this recipe an hour ago and HAD to make it immediately. I just finished my first bowl…WOWZA! I will be sneaking this into my Thanksgiving casserole for sure! I added a heaping tablespoon of Vegenaise to cream it up a bit more…I do this to all of my creamy dishes and it works wonders.
mmm veganaise would be amazing!
Hi! So I tried the broccoli and cheese soup but it turned out bland. I did use frozen broccoli so maybe that was why. Has anyone else tried this recipe with success?
All the other recipes I have tried were amazing!!
Hi Renee, Do you think the frozen broccoli may have diluted the soup? Maybe it would benefit from extra seasonings or a bit of vinegar to finish in this case. Goodluck if you try it again!
This was an absolutely delicious soup! Very hearty and filling. I made a savory cornbread studded with roasted corn to go along with it. It was actually pretty easy and quick to come together – since I knew I was going to blend it, I chopped everything fairly large. Thanks for a great recipe!
I just made this soup and it’s a keeper for sure! My husband, who is almost anti-vegan, liked it too! Thank you.
I’m new to your site which I love by the way. I made this soup tonight and it was out of this world. My husbands first words were you have to make this again. I made it without the potatoes because I didn’t have any, and it was still really creamy and delicious. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Angela, just made this soup and it is absolutely fantastic!!! I’m finding that I spend more time on your blog now than any other, and I’ve made well over 10 recipes now that all have been exceptionally delicious!
Really, I don’t know how you do it but your recipes are guaranteed hits not just with me but with my husband, who each time I have made something from your site tastes it, shakes his head and says “Is this REALLY vegan?” It makes me laugh each time, and this soup was a big hit with him as well as with me! Thanks again!!
This soup is sublime! It’s creamy, a little spicy, really delicious! Thanks so much for sharing your recipe! My husband loved it!
I know this recipe is old, but I’m a new vegan and I just stumbled upon your site a few weeks ago. I am eating this soup right now, and I just couldn’t help but leave a comment over how delicious it is! I love it. Also, I saved some of the cheese sauce to make a spaghetti squash “mac & cheese” tomorrow! My taste buds are so glad you do what you do!
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