The only thing Sara loves more than marshmallows is this vegan broccoli cheez soup.
Kidding!! Â She doesn’t love it that much! Â But to even put it in the same category as marshmallows is saying a lot, if you know how much Sara loves those sticky white puff-balls.
But check out Sara’s list of “Dinner Ideas”… at the very top… “Broccoli cheese soup”… NOT “marshmallows.” And she even spelled “cheese” correctly, because at that point she still thought it actually contained cheese.  It doesn’t.  Most broccoli cheese soup recipes call for more cheese and milk than they do broccoli… Cheese Broccoli Soup… but in mine, the vegetable is the star.
This soup is made with 2 full heads of broccoli, and owes its silky texture & rich, cheesy flavour to a combination of unsweetened plant milk (soy or almond), raw blended cashews, and nutritional yeast.  Wait a minute… before we go any further, what the heck is nutritional yeast?? I’m so glad somebody asked that question! Nutritional yeast is made from a single-celled organism, Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, which is grown on molasses, harvested, & dried into flakes.  (Don’t get it confused with baker’s yeast… it definitely won’t work the same and you’ll have a big frothy mess instead of soup.)  Nutritional yeast is particularly high in B-vitamins, folic acid, selenium, zinc, and protein.  But even better than that, it has a savoury, cheesy flavour that is the perfect replacement for cheese in many recipes.
Like this one!
As if this soup didn’t have enough to recommend it, it’s also dead quick to make… only time enough to saute the onion and then wait for the broccoli to get soft. Â After that, you whiz it up in your blender or with an immersion blender, and bam! Dinner’s ready. Â My kind of soup.
Sara’s kind too. Â I hope you love it as much as she does!
Ingredients
- 2 heads broccoli, stem included, chopped into florets
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 T. olive oil
- 1 t. thyme
- ½-1 t. salt
- ½ t. black pepper
- 6 cups vegetarian broth
- ½ cup raw cashews, soaked in cold water 4 hours & drained
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 cup unsweetened soy or almond milk
Instructions
- In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Saute onion until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add thyme, salt, pepper, & broccoli, and cook one more minute. Add broth, lower heat, and simmer 10-15 minutes or until broccoli is tender.
- Add drained cashews, hot broccoli/broth mixture, & nutritional yeast to a blender or food processor, reserving about 1-2 cups cooked broccoli to add at the end for texture. Blend (carefully, as hot liquids expand) to your desired smoothness.
- Return to the pot and add soy or almond milk and reserved broccoli. Heat gently and serve warm. Makes 7-8 servings.
I didn’t know Sara loves marshmallows. So does her great Aunt Arlene. I’m pretty sure it’s genetic. I found out that our biological grandmother (whom I never met) loved marshmallows. How would I know that if I never met her, you ask. I met her daughter, my aunt, and it somehow came up in conversation. So, with your background of food knowledge/ingredients it must be difficult for you to let Sara eat marshmallows, but just think that she is keeping a family tradition alive. Ha ha, hopefully she doesn’t inherit my ability to justify anything. I love your blog.
Aunt Arlene, your comment made my day! And it made me laugh… knowing Sara’s penchant for marshmallows MUST be genetic makes me feel so much better about it! Though I try to give them a “normal” life regarding food, ha! But Lori informed me a couple of years ago that I could possibly be turned in to CPS due to their not knowing what Cool Whip is. 😉 Can’t wait to see you this summer!! xoxo
This is one of my favorite posts of yours! Especially since I am mentioned in it. The post id short, sweet, and complete. Everything mentioned in this post is SO TRUE! I love your ending! I don’t think that it is abrupt at all. Keep posting these WONDERFUL posts! And WONDERFUL pictures too!
Ah, my Sara, your comments warm my heart. Thank you for taking the time to post! I love writing about you kids because the stories about you are so lovely. 🙂 Love you!!