Broccoli and Cheese Soup

1 Apr

As I’ve previously mentioned, I can spend hours reading through new cookbooks. Over the past week, I’ve been reading Betty Goes Vegan. Ken’s family held a bridal shower for me last weekend and it was part of an adorable gift basket I received. If you’re looking for a new vegan cookbook, I would definitely suggest it-unless you’re not a fan of vegan meat and dairy substitutes. There’s a lot of fun history tidbits and traditional American recipes, which made me reflect back on some of my first recipes.

The first cookbook I had was a collection of recipes from a fire department-you know the kind, where they all put together recipes in a book to try to raise money? Anyway, any recipes I happened to print out or scribble down in the first few years on my own are stuffed into the front page. In flipping through my many pages of chicken scratch I stumbled upon my mom’s cream of broccoli soup recipe. I always enjoy an attempt to veganize an old recipe and it’s especially gratifying when it still tastes the same as I remember it.

Ingredients:

1 large head of broccoli, including stems, chopped or 10 ounces frozen broccoli
1 medium grated carrot
1 cup water with 1 tsp vegetable bouillon
2 tablespoons Earth Balance
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic
2 1/2 cups plain, unsweetened soy milk (or other non dairy milk)
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 cup Daiya cheddar shreds (optional)

Directions:

Boil 1 cup water with vegetable bouillon and add the broccoli and the grated carrot.
In a large dutch oven, cook onion and garlic in Earth Balance over medium heat until softened, 5-6 minutes. Add flour and stir until no longer white, then pour in soy milk. Continue stirring until mixture is thickened.
Add the broccoli, carrot, and broth to the dutch oven and season with nutritional yeast and paprika. When everything is combined, turn off heat and add Daiya, stirring until it melts.