"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something." ~Neil Gaiman
I shared this quote in my newsletter this week, and I think it’s going to be my guide for 2017. Heck, I might even frame it for my office! I tend to shy away from things if I don’t think I can do them well, and this quote reminds me to take more risks in the year to come. My goal list tends to be pretty lofty at the start of each year, but I’m also not too hard on myself if I only complete a portion of them, which is usually the case. Seeing as it’s the new year, I thought it might be fun to update you on what we’ve been up to so far and what some of our goals are.
As you may have seen, we launched the Android version of the Oh She Glows Recipe App Monday after months of preparation. We can’t thank you enough for your support, excitement, and kind words!
On Monday we sent out the latest issue (#11) of In the Glow, sharing healthy recipe ideas for the new year, as well as exciting OSG news tidbits. Starting (and growing) a newsletter was one of our goals for 2016. We sent out our first one on February 9, 2016, followed by 9 more issues over the course of the year. We’re now over 40,000 subscribers and growing! THANK YOU. I’m hoping to send out a survey at some point this year so you can let me know what you want to see more (or less) of.
You may have seen that we’re looking to expand our team. Right now our small-but-fierce team consists of myself, Eric, Shari (Content Editor), and Nicole (Recipe Tester). This year we’d like to hire a Video Content Creator (details on the position here), and potentially, a Social Media Specialist and RD or Holistic Nutritionist intern. (As you may know, the latter two were hiring goals for 2016, but ones that didn’t end up happening due to how busy things were. Thank you to everyone who applied for those positions, and rest assured we haven’t forgotten!)
On the personal side of things, I’m hoping to make progress with my anxiety this year. It’s a never-ending struggle, and tends to be on my goal list each year, but I’m going to keep on with it. I’ve found that postpartum hormones have been making my anxiety a bit worse than usual, and I’m going to take some active steps in 2017 to, hopefully, improve how I feel.
Let’s see, what else? I’ve been hard at work developing recipes for the app. Last week I added 3 new recipes—Brownie Breakfast Bake, Easy Nut-Free Taco Salad, and Dill Pickle Smoothie—to the app. We launched the new Get Glowing Bundle last week, too, which contains 5 “reset button” recipes to kick off the new year. The app bundle is 99 cents, and for the month of January all of our revenue from this bundle will be donated to Blessings in a Backpack Canada. This charity ensures children in need receive backpacks filled with food every Friday throughout the school year, so they can return to class on Monday well fed and ready to learn. It’s awesome to be working with BIB again!
On the blog front, I’m starting to bookmark old recipes that are in desperate need of some updating—such as my Broccoli and Cheese Soup. The original recipe was posted back in 2011, and I took one look at the recipe and its photos and knew I had to breathe some life back into it with a fresh new approach. Last year I also started adding metric conversions to my recipes, and I’ll continue to share these calculations for each new recipe in the future. It’s tedious (mainly because I weigh each solid ingredient), but I love hearing from those of you in the UK and elsewhere who find it incredibly helpful! I want you to have similar results, ya know?! If there are any other old blog recipes that you’d like to see revamped in 2017, please drop me a comment below. I’d love to hear your ideas!
There are some other goals on our radar this year, but this feels long-winded enough for now.
Cheers to making mistakes, trying new things, and learning as we go in 2017!
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
Vegan Broccoli and Cheese Soup
Yield
8 cups (2 litres)
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Like a big, cozy sweater, this soothing soup will help you get through the long winter. It combines my love for broccoli and cheese sauce, while doing without the dairy-based cream or cheese. This is a bit of a fussy soup (think weekend, not weeknight) as it involves a few homemade components (cheese sauce, soup, and homemade croutons), so you’ll need an hour start to finish. If you can make the cheese sauce the day before, that’ll help streamline things!
This soup is adapted from my 2011 version. The cheese sauce is lightly adapted from my cheese sauce in Oh She Glows Every Day.
Ingredients
For the cheese sauce:
- 1 1/4 cups (190 g) diced peeled yellow or red potatoes*
- Heaping 1/3 cup (55 g) diced peeled carrots*
- 2 tablespoons (6 g) nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoons (30 mL) refined coconut or grapeseed oil**
- 2 1/2 tablespoons (37.5 mL) water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (7.5 mL) fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 medium (4 g) garlic clove
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) white wine vinegar
For the soup:
- 1 tablespoon (15 mL) extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium (350 g) onion, diced (2 heaping cups)
- 3 medium (13 g) garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup (120 g) chopped celery
- 5 to 6 cups (350 g) chopped broccoli florets
- 1 1/2 cups (225 g) chopped Yukon Gold potatoes (about 2 medium)
- 3 cups (750 mL) low-sodium vegetable broth
- 2 tablespoons (6 g) nutritional yeast
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (7.5 mL) fresh lemon juice, or to taste
- Fine sea salt, to taste (I use 1/2 teaspoon)
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 1/2 teaspoons to 3 teaspoons (7.5 to 15 mL) chickpea miso, to taste***
For topping:
- Pan-Fried Garlic Croutons (use gluten-free bread if necessary)****
- Smoked or sweet paprika
- Fresh minced parsley
Directions
- For the cheese sauce: Place the potatoes and carrots in a medium pot and add water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes, until fork-tender. Drain.
- While the potatoes and carrots are simmering, add the nutritional yeast, oil, water, lemon juice, salt, garlic, and vinegar into a high-speed blender and set aside.
- Chop the onions, garlic, celery, broccoli, and potatoes for the soup and set aside.
- When the simmering potatoes and carrots are fork-tender, drain them and add to the blender. Blend the cheese sauce until smooth, then transfer to a bowl.
- For the soup: In a large pot, sauté the oil, onion, and garlic over medium heat, stirring frequently. Cook for about 3 to 5 minutes.
- To the pot, add the celery, broccoli, and potatoes and sauté for a few minutes more. Now, add the broth, nutritional yeast, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer over medium heat for about 13 to 15 minutes, until the potatoes are fork-tender. Turn off the heat and let the soup sit for a few minutes. Add the chickpea miso.
- Carefully transfer the soup into a blender (you might have to do this in two batches). Blend until smooth and place back into the pot.
- Set aside 1/4 cup (60 mL) of cheese sauce for garnish. Add the rest of the cheese sauce into the soup and stir to combine. Adjust seasonings to taste if desired.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and swirl in a tablespoon of the reserved cheese sauce into each bowl. Top with Pan-Fried Garlic Croutons, paprika, and parsley, if desired.
Tip:
* To cut down on cooking time, be sure to dice the potatoes and carrots very small.
** Refined coconut oil doesn’t have a coconut flavour, which is why I love it in the cheese sauce. Grapeseed oil also has a neutral flavour, but if you don’t have either you can probably get away with a light-tasting olive oil.
*** I love chickpea miso, it’s light in flavour and often soy-free (be sure to check the label, though). If you can’t find chickpea miso, any light or white miso should do the trick! I like a full 3 teaspoons of chickpea miso in this soup, but depending on the flavour of your miso you might prefer a bit less.
**** Instead of bread-based croutons, you can top this soup with my Roasted Chickpea Croutons.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
Eating this soup was the best thing that happened to me today!
It’s so super delicious, so warming up, so smooth… simply so good! I played with your original recipe a bit, and added apple cider vinegar instead of white wine vinegar for the sauce, swapped potatoes for butternut squash (only in the soup), doubled the amount of lemon juice and tripled the nutritional yeast. I also added 1/2 tsp. of hot paprika, and only a tiny pinch of cayenne pepper. In the end, I skipped the croutons. I just love to melt in the smoothness and delicate texture of the dish. Wow, it’s been like an hour since I had this miraculous soup, and I still feel so incredibly good. What can I say, I think that was just what I needed today.
Thank you, Angela, for putting so much heart and work into what you’re doing here, which is – in my opinion – teaching others how to love yourself. I feel you contributed tons to my taking care of myself, listening to my body, nourishing and loving myself more!
The android app is great, I totally love it! One remark: shouldn’t there be an option to tap (with a black heart, for example) those recipes you don’t like? Would involve much less tapping! ;)
Wish you a great 2017! <3
Thank you so much for this lovely comment, Kamila! I’m beyond thrilled to hear you loved the recipe and are enjoying the app; thanks for taking the time to let me know. :) Happy 2017 to you, too!
Hi Angela! I love this soup! Made a double batch of it last week.. delicious. We double or triple (or even quadruple!) most recipes so we can freeze and enjoy later. Having good quality containers for freezing in our house is crucial! We currently use the Anchor brand, but find the lids constantly crack and it’s getting frustrating! I was wondering what brand of containers you use for freezing? Thanks so much for being an inspiration. I use your cookbooks, app or blog daily.
Hey Sydney, I’m so happy you love this soup!! Thank you for letting me know. As for glass containers, I use Glasslock brand.
Holy crap! 1) this is the most amazing soup ever 2) THE CHEESE SAUCE!!!! it almost didn’t make it into my soup it was so delicious we were eating it straight out of the blender! Would be so good as is or with some added spices as a queso type cheese!
Hi Angela! I’m absolutely love your recipes and made this one last night. It was really good (even my 8 year old approved – which is always a win) unfortunately I think I overdid it with the garlic – the cloves were too big, didn’t cook enough or something. Anyway, my question, is there anything that you can suggest I do to the leftover soup to cut the garlic flavour a little? Thanks!
Hey Kate, Aw, I’m sorry to hear that about the garlic (so easy to do!), but glad it was a hit nonetheless. You might be able to cut the soup down with some veggie broth (this will obviously thin the soup though) and then re-adjust the salt/spices to taste. Hope this helps!
Hello,
Just wondering where I would find chickpea miso. I went to Whole Foods in Oakville the other day and could not find it. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Hey Fiona, I buy it from Organic Garage in Oakville. Hope this helps!
Wow, what a delicious soup! I was skeptical that all of those ingredients would actually taste like cheese, but it did and then some. The 5 year old inhaled it too. Very, very yummy.
I’m thrilled you enjoyed it, Yvette!
Angela – you are an inspiration! Have both your cookbooks and have given, and recommended, many as gifts. Love that you have pictures and a chatty explanation with each recipe. Every single one has turned out perfectly!
My most recent success is your cheese and broccoli soup – my carnivore husband raved over it. And no wonder….it was fabulous.
Keep up your great work. A loyal fan.
Thanks so much for the warm words, Valerie! I’m thrilled to hear you’re enjoying the cookbooks, and that this recipe was a success for you, too. :)
Hi
I am a huge fan of your cookbooks. After receiving one for Christmas 2 years ago, I thought,”I am not vegan what am I going to do with this??” Since then I have become much more mindful of my meat consumption and I can’t put this book down! I have not tried this recipe, but one day I made your Golden French Lentil Stew as well as your 6 Vegetable and “Cheese” Soup as my Sunday meal prep. On a whim I decided to mix the 2 and it is AMAZING. I love getting knowing I’m getting some broccoli in my diet with the protein boost from those lentils. I highly recommended it!! Keep the amazing recipes coming. Very grateful for your hard work.
Just made this yesterday… and omg so delish. The only thing I changed was no oil for the onions. My 18 mo old loved this…she absolutely wouldn’t share lol. So easy to make especially if you do the boiling method for soaking cashews. I’ll be making again. Thank you thank you
Aw, I’m thrilled it was a hit, and with the whole fam! (I must admit, I sometimes have a hard time sharing this one too, hah ;))
“What a lovely restaurant, good food and service and atmosphere, definitely hope to go back. The roasties were YUMMY!!!“
I’m going to try this for lunch-am gluten/lactose intolerant and always looking for good nutritious recipes that won’t make me sick for weeks! Good site!
I hope you love it, Fran!
Looks yummy! Can I freeze this?
Hey Colleen, I haven’t tried this yet myself, but it’s something I’ve wondered about. I find that potato is hit and miss when it comes to freezing and thawing. For example, I tried freezing and thawing my cheese sauce (which has potato in it) and I noticed the texture changed a bit and it wasn’t as smooth and creamy. For this reason, I’m not sure how the soup would be impacted, but if you try it out please let us know. :)
I make the simplest broccoli soups often. all of them vegan. I thought I’d give the “cheese” addition a try. I’m sorry, our family was disappointed. It was spicy and bland. I’d rather have all the ingredients separate than add it again into a soup. The presentation was beautiful but it just didn’t deliver on taste. :/
This is so good! I didn’t have any refined coconut oil and so planned on substituting canola as it was the only mild flavored oil on hand. Unfortunately, I forgot about that plan and used my regular coconut oil….it made the final product have a strange aftertaste. That’s on me, though! It still tasted great over all and will try it again with the recommended oil. Fair warning: Don’t use unrefined coconut oil. :)
Fantastic soup on these cold days, we’re getting lately. I wanted my reader’s to try this “Vegan” version of one of my favorites. I’ve posted it under my “weekly” recipes, chosen for their enjoyment, and linked it back to “ohsheglows.com”
I made this recipe today and it was filling and delicious! I had to keep myself from eating all the “cheese” sauce on its own, though! (I might use it as a chip dip sometime, hmm…) I used regular white miso because that’s what I already had and I topped it with homemade popcorn with melted coconut oil and sprinkled with nutritional yeast.
Also, I didn’t peel the potatoes (because I’m lazy.) It certainly didn’t look as pretty, but it didn’t compromise the taste or texture at all.
This was delicious! I didn’t have the miso, but the soup was still wonderful and the cheese sauce was a big hit with my kids (as were the croutons!) I also fed it to my 87 year old (decidedly NOT vegan) mother and she loved it (didn’t feel the need to tell her either!) It looked beautiful as well – I would serve this to guests at my table.
As a huge fan of your blog, I trusted that this was going to be delicious, but I was skeptical seeing nutritional yeast on the ingredients list (I’ve had gross experiences with other recipes that included nutritional yeast). However, I LOVE this soup! I think the miso plays an important part in the flavor and gives it a yummy kick. There are so many spices and ingredients that all come together for a delicious soup. I think serving it with croutons would definitely give it a better visual appeal, but you don’t need them for taste :) Love knowing that I’m eating something healthy, packed with so much broccoli, and that is creamy without any dairy. Thank you!
Oh, I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe, Kayla — even with the nutritional yeast! Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know :)
This soup looks delicious. I was looking for a new soup idea and this is perfect. It looks like good comfort food the whole family can enjoy.
I hope you love it if you give it a try, Edwina! I really do find it’s perfect comfort dish.:)
Though normally I would prefer non veg soups this vegan recipe is definitely an attention grabber and one I’m definitely trying this weekend. The creamy flavor with the broccoli.. looks yummy :).. thanks for the awesome recipe.
Hope you enjoy it, Jennifer!