I’m writing to you from the comfy headquarters of Kim & I’s bed. Truthfully, I couldn’t be writing about a soup recipe at a better/more ironic time – I’m sick. 

I don’t know how it happened, but here I am with a scratchy throat, fever, and a rough cough. Whatevs, sick or not, we’ve heavily been craving soup recently, even if it’s not the slightest bit cold in LA. Plus, I’m sure lots of you guys live out in the arctic (a.k.a. the Midwest) where it’s appropriate to be eating ladle-fulls of soup every night.

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This is an adaptation of my favorite soup growing up: broccoli cheddar, which I ordered every time I went to Panera Bread. At times, our blog may seem bougee or “extra,” but I can tell you that most things we make are based off of cheap, chain-restaurant, childhood-favorite fair, hence the inspiration here.

Enough about us, more about this soup. First and foremost, obviously there’s no cheddar in here. But that’s okay, because we’ve got something better: nutritional yeast. As you can imagine, this soup stars a lot of our favorite protein-rich, cheesy powder.

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To thicken up the soup we made a roux of arrowroot starch and “buttery coconut oil” by Nutiva, the combination of which takes the place of a traditional wheat flour & butter roux. Aside from being one of our go-to thickeners, arrowroot works particularly well in mimicking cheese based sauces, because when it expands its starchy goodness, it creates stringy strands in the sauce, which mirrors the effect of cheese when melted, just not to the same extent.

If you’ve checked out one of our baked good recipes, you’ve probably seen me mention “buttery coconut oil” by Nutiva, and for good reason. Mainly, it’s the only “butter substitute” out there that fits our diet (hooray!), and two, it tastes so friggin’ buttery that it’s down right mind blowing. In the case of this roux, the oil will add an incredible amount of rich, buttery depth to the soup, which can’t be accomplished by anything else other than real butter. But if you don’t have it in hand or don’t care to go and find it, I don’t blame you, just substitute it with olive oil, albeit the soup won’t be as rich.

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Finally, of course, what would this soup be without broccoli? Well, it would actually be a delicious cheese sauce… I mean, it would be nothing without broccoli! Jokes aside, broccoli does really bring all the flavors together by adding fresh green brightness as well as providing vegetation for the teeth to grab onto instead of eating straight ladles of creamy broth, which actually doesn’t sound terrible.

Oh, and making this soup couldn’t be any easier, as it requires only one pot, a whisk, a spoon, and about twenty minutes to make. Perfect for one of those cold nights where every part of your being feels lethargic but you know that you deserve something satisfying to compliment your lazy night.

If you like what your taste buds are tellin’ ya, leave behind a nice rating, share your thoughts with us in the comments, or show us your creations by tagging @noeggsorham on Instagram.

Go Forth & Devour,
Ryan & Kim

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P.S. If you don’t like eating soup by itself, we included a ‘lil bonus recipe that may satisfy your bread cravings.

Vegan Broccoli Cheddar Soup

  • Servings: Two large bowls
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

Rich, buttery, nutritional yeast-packed broth with tender broccoli florets + a bonus recipe of savory garlic muffins to be enjoyed alongside your soup.

Ingredients

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Bonus Recipe – Savory Garlic Muffins

  • 90 g (3/4 c) green banana flour
  • 34 g (1/4 c) sorghum flour
  • 10 g (2 tbsp) nutritional yeast
  • 6 g (1 1/2 tsp) baking powder
  • 3 g (3/4 tsp) sea salt
  • 78 g buttery coconut oil or olive oil
  • 1 c light coconut milk
  • 1 flax egg (1 tbsp flax meal + 2.5 tbsp water)
  • 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 7 garlic cloves, roughly chopped (1 1/2 tbsp)
  • 1 tsp chives, finely chopped

Directions

  1. Broccoli Cheddar Soup: Place a medium/large soup pot – that you can use metal utensils on – over medium heat.
  2. Once hot, add in butter and wait ’til melted. Then, add in the arrowroot starch and whisk constantly for 3-4 minutes.
  3. Then, slowly whisk in the vegetable broth; add it in intervals of 1/3 c while whisk constantly before adding the next batch. This prevents clumping.
  4. Once half of the broth is added, add in coconut milk, dijon mustard, nutritional yeast, salt, and the rest of the broth. Bring to a boil, stirring often.* (reference notes if you have clumpy broth)
  5. Reduce heat to medium-low and toss in broccoli. Stir to coat in broth, slap on a lid, and cook until tender to liking; about 10 minutes.
  6. Serve by itself or with Savory Garlic Muffins! Store any leftovers in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat in a medium sauce pot over medium heat until bubbly.
  7. Savory Garlic Muffins: Pre-heat oven to 350° F and lightly coat muffin tins with oil or non-stick spray (about 6 regular-sized muffin tins or 3 jumbo sized tins).
  8. In a medium bowl, whisk together banana flour, sorghum flour, nutritional yeast, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
  9. In a large bowl, whisk together flax egg with melted buttery coconut oil until cohesive – this may take a couple minutes of vigorous whisking, which is to be expected.
  10. To that, whisk in coconut milk, apple cider vinegar, garlic, and chives. Then, pour the dry ingredients on top of the wet ingredients and stir – with a wooden spoon – until thoroughly combined.
  11. Fill up prepped muffin tins 4/5 of the full with muffin batter. Bake in oven until the edges are set but the center is lightly jiggly; about 20 minutes for regular muffin tins & 30-35 minutes for jumbo muffin tins.
  12. Set muffin pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then, transfer muffins from pan directly onto the cooling rack and cool an additional 10 minutes.
  13. Enjoy while warm with soup or let cool completely then store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

  • If something went wrong while making the roux and the broth ended up clumpy, then transfer your broth (without broccoli) into a food processor or blender and blend on high for 30 seconds until it becomes smooth. Return to soup pot, add in broccoli, and continue on like it never happened.

 

7 thoughts on “ Vegan Broccoli Cheddar Soup (Plant-Paradox friendly) ”

  1. I made this tonight with your cassava biscuits….divine. It totally hit the spot and even my kids liked it. I’m now obsessed with that buttery coconut oil, I never would’ve known it was a thing if it weren’t for you.

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