Vegan Broccoli "Cheese" Soup

  Chris and I have been looking for a vegan alternative to our family's favorite Super Easy Cheese Vegetable Soup. We have really been moving towards complete veganism. (In fact, it's getting difficult for us to look at the blog's header photo- so much dairy! Time for a new pic!)
  We had been thinking of using a variation of The Farm's Yeasty Mac and Cheese recipe for the soup base. When I saw this recipe for Vegan Broccoli Cheese Soup, I knew it was the one!  Now I need to be up front with you. Nutritional yeast doesn't really taste like cheese. It tastes like nutritional yeast. And my family LOVES it. We use it on popcorn, toast, burritos, salad, everything. So we tried it and now we're sharing it with you!



Vegan Broccoli Cheese Soup
 
Note: You can probably make this gluten free by substituting the flour with 2 or 3 tablespoons of corn starch or another similar thickener.

• 3 or 4 small heads broccoli, chopped and with most of the stems removed
• 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unbleached flour
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried yellow mustard powder
• 8 cups water
• 5 tablespoons vegan butter

Prepare your broccoli and onion, then steam them for about 15 minutes. It will not have enough time to cook in the soup itself, so it needs to be cooked separately. Just be sure to not over-steam it.

In a large soup pot (which will need to be at least 3 or 4 quarts), mix all of your dry ingredients together, then whisk in the water until the dry and the wet have been well mixed. Add in the vegan butter and allow it to melt as the soup cooks.

Turn on the heat to about medium high and stir constantly. It will take several minutes to thicken, but if you do not stir the soup it will burn on the bottom and not thicken evenly.

As soon as the soup thickens up to a consistency that you like, take the soup off the heat and stir in the steamed broccoli and onion. You can serve immediately, or you can store it and serve it later. It will thicken up more in your refrigerator, however as you heat it up again, it will return to a more liquid state.

Success! We loved it. Méabh REALLY loved it. I look forward to trying the yeast base in other recipes. We served it with a salad and home made garlic toast.

We had some lovely dinner guests too.