This soup is so rich and creamy, you’ll swear it’s made with cheddar cheese and sour cream. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water. Including low-calorie vegetable soups as part of a diet plan can help you lose weight. Feeling full while keeping calories low is an important part of maintaining a healthy weight. Do this by eating soup at least twice a week. Soups are also excellent make-ahead meals. Make a double batch and freeze half so you don’t have to cook on busy nights. Serve with a simple green salad and some good whole grain bread.
Note: Miso is added at the very end of cooking as miso has probiotic properties and cooking too long destroys these properties.
Shortcut Tip: Instead of chopping up the onion, celery and carrot yourself, look for pre-chopped Mirepoix, a mix of these three commonly used vegetables at Trader Joe’s.
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Vegan Broccoli Cheese Soup
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 1 medium carrot, diced
- 1 medium russet potato, peeled and diced
- 2 yellow summer squash, diced
- 3 cups water plus 1 cup broccoli steaming water
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoons ume plum vinegar
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ½ cup raw cashews
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 6 cups chopped fresh broccoli
- 2 tablespoons yellow miso (use chickpea miso instead to make soy-free)
Instructions
- In a large pot, place onion, garlic, celery, carrot, potato, yellow squash, water and bay leaf. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 7-10 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
- Meanwhile, steam broccoli in a separate pot for 4 minutes, reserving 1 cup of steaming water. Remove broccoli from steamer and chop finely. Note: Using the steaming water will add extra nutrients to the soup. If you forget, just use additional water.
- Remove bay leaf from soup, then place cooked vegetables and cooking liquid in blender (NOT including broccoli) with nutritional yeast, ume plum vinegar, lemon juice, raw cashews, miso and black pepper. Blend until creamy. Return to pot. Add chopped, steamed broccoli and 1 cup of steaming water, stir well and serve immediately.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Category: Soup
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition Facts: Broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable and is the world’s best source of sulforaphane. Sulforaphane is the most potent natural phase 2 enzyme-inducer known, which helps our bodies detoxify and reduce the risk of some forms of cancer. What is amazing is that there is no sulforaphane in broccoli until an herbivore, such as a human, chews it, mixing the natural compounds found within the stalk and florets. By steaming lightly and chewing thoroughly, you will enhance absorption of this vital nutrient which helps our bodies deal with the daily stresses of modern life.
Recipe by Emily Honeycutt, 2016. © All Rights Reserved.
My 11 year old non-vegan son said “it’s a perfect recipe!”
★★★★★
Hi Hope, Thank you so much for the compliment. Please tell your son I’m so happy that he likes the soup! -Emily
Hi Emily,
I want to make this soup for my daughter – she loves broccoli and has several food allergies. She is supposed to stay away from all tree nuts so is there anything else I can use in place of the cashews?
Hi Ally,
Thanks for your question. Can your daughter have soy? The purpose of the raw cashews is to help make the soup rich and creamy (instead of using heavy cream). You could blend in the same amount (or maybe a little more) of silken tofu. That will help make the soup silky and creamy. I use the same technique in my recipe for Tomato Vodka Veggie Pasta.
I hope that helps!
-Emily
Is there anything that could work in place of the ume plum vinegar. I’m sure a substitute won’t taste as good, but I just don’t have any on hand at the moment. Thanks!
Hi Jackie,
Thanks for the question. Ume plum vinegar does have a unique flavor. It provides sort of a fermented-salty-tart flavor, as it’s the brine left over from pickling ume plums. When you don’t have any on hand, you can substitute lemon juice or red wine vinegar plus additional salt to taste. Start with less. You can always add more. Yes, the soup will be a slightly different, but I’m sure it will still be delicious. I hope that helps!
-Emily
Lovely recipe! I do broccoli “cheese” soup often but never added miso 🙂 I’ll try this soon!
Thanks so much, Lee!
This soup is easy to make, full of liver loving nutrients, and taste great too! I doubled the recipe so I had enough for my lunch all week. For this reason it was easier for me to blend the broccoli into the soup. When I warmed it eat day I needed to add water to it since it thickened while stored. One change I’ll make to it next time is to use less Nutritional Yeast.
Can’t wait to try another one of your recipes!
Thanks Pam. I’m so glad you liked it! Yes, it is easier to make if you just blend the broccoli right into it (that will make it thicker, too). Keeping the broccoli separate does take an extra step. The nutritional yeast in combination with the ume plum vinegar and miso makes it really cheesy tasting! Those three in combination are my secret ingredients for cheese cravers! If you haven’t been eating dairy cheese for a while, you may want to cut the nutritional yeast, miso and ume plum vinegar in half. People who are more accustomed to the SAD (Standard American Diet) expect a lot of intense flavor, which you get from this soup.
I always double the batch, too!