And no, I’m not talking about Velveeta.

First things first! For any delightful* musings scroll to the end. 🙂

Ingredients:

1 smallish onion, roughly chopped

garlic, a clove or two

1-2 quarts vegetable stock

1 cup dried white beans (I used great northern) (if cooking on the stove top consider using pre-cooked or canned beans unless you have a long time.)

2 medium potatoes

1/2 pound cauliflouwer chopped (I used cauliflower “rice” from Costco because I had a lot of it)

1-2 roasted peppers (about a scant 1/4 cup)

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

1 pound broccoli

seasonings of your choice (I used a salt-free seasoning blend, pepper, a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice, smoked paprika, and a little salt to taste at the end)

 

Method:

Combine onion garlic, and seasonings with a bit of water or stock and “saute” for a couple of minutes until they begin to soften. Add beans, potatoes, cauliflouwer, roasted peppers and vegetable stock. Add water or more stock until there is enough liquid for the beans to cook in (this is extra important if using dry beans). Cook until everything is very soft. Add nutritional yeast. Use an immersion blender to blend until creamy. I also removed 3-4 cups of the beans, potatoes and cauliflower and put them in my high-powered blender for a couple of minutes to activate the starches and make a more vaguely cheese-like experience (side bar: heads up that this is not going to taste like cheese. I hate it when vegan recipes tell you things will taste “just like cheese.” It turns out potatoes and cauliflower don’t taste like cheese, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t delicious. OK? OK. Sorry for interrupting.).

Steam or boil broccoli until fork tender. Roughly chop (into whatever size pieces you want to eat in your soup). Stir all together. Adjust seasonings and serve. We have hot sauce on the side because not everyone in my house likes spicy food.

 

Delightful* Musings:

I like the idea of Panera’s broccoli cheddar soup. I just don’t want to make it with cheese. This soup is cozy and warming, especially with a good crusty sourdough (that sounds especially nice today because it’s the first day snow stayed on the ground where I live).

I recently took this to a party with people who eat cheese and meat and some of them thought it was good. So, there’s that. In my house there are three levels of success with cooking.

1. Good!
2. Vegan good!
3. Oh. (This is also sometimes called “Thank you for your hard work making this.”)

If I’m sharing a recipe here it’s usually because I made something, liked it, and then got confirmation by asking my friends, “is this delicious, or did I forget what sour cream tastes like?” (Some of my friends are really good sports, people.)

Anyway, I hope if you live someplace cold that you have a cozy day, and that if you live someplace warm the bugs don’t bite you (I see you, Florida friends, and all I have to say about your smug beach pictures with your “haha Ohio” captions is that we have tiny little cockroaches and they can’t fly!).

*Delightful is in the eye of the beholder and not everyone wants to read my tired “mother of an infant” ramblings so that’s why I’ve put them at the end. If you read them anyway, then thanks! That’s delightful.