Vegan Broccoli Soup

This easy Vegan Broccoli Soup recipe is smooth and creamy comfort food loaded with tender broccoli and buttery croutons in every bite! It’s easy to make — you can make it in around 30 minutes and lightened up thanks to being dairy-free broccoli! See post tips for making it gluten-free.

Serve this healthy broccoli soup with Vegan Twice-Baked Potatoes or a Vegan Caesar Salad.

I absolutely love broccoli soup. I’m so pleased to say that it’s easy to make broccoli soup vegan. Yes, that’s right. This creamy soup is dairy-free. Time to do the happy dance!

What You Need

You can find the full printable recipe, including ingredient quantities, below. But first, here are some explanations of ingredients and steps to help you make this recipe perfect every time.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need for this recipe:

• Broccoli — You’ll need one head of fresh broccoli.
• Carrots — You can use baby carrots, or you’ll need 1 regular carrot (wash and slice them).
• Potato — We’ll be adding a small red potato. You can substitute a Yukon Gold potato.
• Olive oil
• Onion — I prefer using a yellow onion because the flavor is more mellow.
• Celery — One or maybe two celery ribs will do the trick here.
• Garlic — You’ll need 4 cloves of garlic, or you can use the tender bits and the oil of this garlic confit.
• Broth — I prefer to use Better than Bouillon No Chicken Base or the Vegetarian Base because it’s a high-quality broth that will make this soup sing!
• White wine — A bit of whine wine adds so much flavor to this soup. You can substitute lemon juice.
• Nutritional yeast flakes — We want a cheesy flavor, and that comes from nutritional yeast flakes.
• Cashews — Adding raw cashews makes this soup extra creamy!
• Croutons — You can use storebought croutons or make your own with cubed bread, tossed in olive oil, garlic powder, and salt.

Ingredient Spotlight

What Broccoli is Best for Soup

When selecting a head of broccoli for broccoli soup, look for a head with compact florets with a fresh smell. It shouldn’t have a cabbage smell. Some yellowing in the florets is fine, but it shouldn’t have big patches of yellow. You can keep your broccoli in the fridge for up to 5 days before using it.

How to Make Vegan Broccoli Soup

It’s so easy to make this vegan broccoli cheddar soup! It begins with broccoli.

1. Prepare the broccoli by cutting it into bite-sized florets.
2. Cook onion, celery, carrots, and potato pieces in a pot with oil until tender. Add garlic and cook for about a minute longer.
3. Add the other soup ingredients along with the broccoli florets/pieces and bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
4. Cook until the broccoli is tender.
5. Use tongs to remove half of the broccoli florets from the pot.
6. Blend the soup at low speed for a few seconds, then slowly increasing the speed.
7. Add some of the reserved broccoli florets to the pureed soup.
8. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with remaining broccoli florets and croutons.

Here are more detailed step-by-step instructions:

Step One: Prepare the Broccoli

1. Rinse the broccoli. Then cut the crown away from the stems.
2. Cut the crown into bite-sized florets.
   
3. Cut branch stems into small, bite-size pieces.
4. Discard the main stem.
5. You should have around 4 cups of florets and small stem pieces.

Step Two: Cook Aromatics

• Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat.
• Add the onion, celery, carrots, and potato pieces.
• Sautee until the vegetables are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes.
• Add garlic and cook for about a minute longer.

Step Four: Make the Broth

1. Combine the water and bouillon together and stir until combined. You can heat the water up a bit to coax the bouillon into dissolving into the water.
2. Pour the broth in with the vegetable mixture.

Step Five: Add Broccoli

1. Next, add the wine, nutritional yeast flakes, cashews, and broccoli florets/pieces.
2. Bring this to a boil, and then reduce the heat to a simmer (low boil).
3. Simmer for 20 minutes until the broccoli is tender.
   
4. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool slightly.
5. Use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove half of the broccoli florets from the pot. We’ll add those back to the finished soup so it has some texture.

Step Six: Blend the Soup

• To make the soup creamy, allow it to cool slightly.
• Pour the soup into the blender jar, filling it only halfway.
• Secure the lid on the blender and top with a kitchen towel.
• Blend on low speed for a few seconds, then slowly increase speed to create a creamy soup.

Serving Suggestions

Transfer the blended soup to a bowl and add most of the reserved broccoli florets. To serve, ladle the soup into individual bowls and top with any remaining florets and croutons.

I love serving soup with any of the following:

• Vegan garlic toast
• Vegan Caesar salad
• A Vegan Loaded Baked Potato is great on the side
• Vegan Breadsticks

Vegan Croutons

The croutons on top are purely optional, but they add so much to this vegan broccoli soup. However, there are options if you’re looking for a low-carb soup topper! I highly recommend adding roasted chickpeas as a topping. It’s tasty and crunchy!

However, if you’re going for the toasted croutons, good for you! Let’s begin.

1. Begin with sourdough, whole wheat bread, or even gluten-free bread (to make this a gluten-free broccoli soup).
2. Place the bread cubes in a bowl and then drizzle with olive oil.
3. Sprinkle them with garlic powder, salt, and black pepper. Then toss to coat.
4. Place coated bread cubes on a baking sheet, spreading evenly across the pan. Try not to crowd them too closely together.
5. Bake 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown.

Note: Fresh bread could take a little longer to toast whereas older, stale bread will brown more quickly.

Broccoli Nutrition Explained

Broccoli is a healthy vegetable to include in your diet. First and foremost, broccoli is low in calories but high in fiber and nutrients.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman refers to low-calorie, highly-nutritious foods as nutrient-dense. In fact, he created a scoring mechanism called ANDI to rate the nutritional density of foods, and broccoli has a highly nutritious ANDI rating!

Easy Vegan Soup Recipes

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I hope you love this vegan broccoli soup as much as we do!

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Vegan Broccoli Soup

This creamy vegan broccoli soup is a healthy soup cleverly disguised as comfort food. It's delicious all the way to the sourdough croutons.

5 from 3 votes

Print Pin Rate Save Saved!

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Resting Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Servings: 4

Calories: 386kcal

Author: Marly

Ingredients

CupsMetric

Broccoli Soup

• ▢ 1 head broccoli
• ▢ ½ cup chopped carrots
• ▢ 1 small small red potato , not peeled, washed and diced (1 cup)
• ▢ 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ▢ 1 small onion , peeled and diced
• ▢ ½ cup chopped celery
• ▢ 4 cloves garlic , peeled and minced
• ▢ 4 cups water
• ▢ 4 teaspoons Better than Bouillon No Chicken Base**
• ▢ ¼ cup white wine (sub lemon juice)
• ▢ 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes
• ▢ ½ cup raw cashews

Croutons

• ▢ 2 cups cubed bread (see note)
• ▢ 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

For the Broccoli Soup

• Prepare the Broccoli: Rinse the broccoli. Then cut the crown away from the stems. Cut the crown into bite-sized florets. Cut branch stems into small, bite-size pieces. Discard the main stem. You should have around 4 cups of florets and small stem pieces.
• Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, carrots, and potato pieces. Sautee until the vegetables are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add garlic and cook for about a minute longer. Then add water, bouillon, wine, nutritional yeast flakes, cashews, and broccoli florets/pieces. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes until broccoli is tender. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Use tongs to remove half of the broccoli florets from the pot.
• Blend the soup: Remove the center cap from your blender lid. Fill the blender only halfway. Secure the lid on the blender and top with a kitchen towel. Blend on low speed for a few seconds, then slowly increase speed to create a creamy soup. Transfer to a bowl. then repeat with remaining ingredients from the pan. Add about 3/4 of the reserved broccoli florets to the pureed soup, leaving some to place as a topping.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with broccoli florets and croutons.

For The Croutons

• Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• To make croutons, place bread cubes in a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder, salt, and freshly ground pepper. Toss to coat all the bread pieces.
• Spread coated bread cubes on a prepared baking sheet, spreading evenly across the pan. Try not to crowd them too closely together. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. Note: Fresh bread could take a little longer to toast whereas older, stale bread will brown more quickly.

Recommended Equipment

Blender

Soup Crocks

(The products above contain sponsored links to products we use and recommend)

Notes

Regarding Vegetable Broth: You can use 4 cups of vegetable broth, but I find a great variety in the quality in store-bought vegetable broth which is why I recommend the Better than Bouillon. It delivers a high-quality broth that has the best flavors.

Quick Cook Method. If you want the vegetables to cook faster, you can place chopped potatoes and carrots in a microwave-safe bowl. Add just a bit of water, and heat for 1 to 2 minutes. This will help them get tender more quickly. Leave them to sit in the microwave until they’re cool enough to handle and then transfer to the pot with the rest of the soup ingredients.

Bread for Croutons. Use whatever bread you prefer, or you can try sourdough bread or even gluten-free bread.

Make this Dish Gluten-free. Simply use gluten-free bread for the croutons.

Make-ahead Tips. Make this soup the day before serving and simply reheat it in the pot or microwave. This soup can be stored for up to 3 to 4 days in the fridge.

Freezer Tips. Transfer prepared soup to a freezer-safe container. It can be kept frozen for up to 3 months. To serve, transfer to the fridge the night before to allow it to thaw. Then cook in the microwave or in a pot until heated through.

Nutrition Facts

Vegan Broccoli Soup

Amount Per Serving

Calories 386 Calories from Fat 216

% Daily Value*

Fat 24g37%

Saturated Fat 3g15%

Sodium 1280mg53%

Potassium 985mg28%

Carbohydrates 34g11%

Fiber 8g32%

Sugar 7g8%

Protein 12g24%

Vitamin A 3677IU74%

Vitamin C 143mg173%

Calcium 124mg12%

Iron 3mg17%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

The nutrition information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Did you make this recipe?

Leave a rating below then tag @namelymarly on Instagram and hashtag it #namelymarly. I love seeing your creations!

Enjoy!