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!
Why This Recipe is a Winner
- Potatoes have a high starch content, adding creaminess to every bite
- Broccoli florets are cooked in a broth mixture, adding flavor as they become tender
- Using a blender to make a mostly creamy soup guarantees a bit of texture and creaminess.
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.
- Prepare the broccoli by cutting it into bite-sized florets.
- Cook onion, celery, carrots, and potato pieces in a pot with oil until tender. Add garlic and cook for about a minute longer.
- Add the other soup ingredients along with the broccoli florets/pieces and bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
- Cook until the broccoli is tender.
- Use tongs to remove half of the broccoli florets from the pot.
- Blend the soup at low speed for a few seconds, then slowly increasing the speed.
- Add some of the reserved broccoli florets to the pureed soup.
- 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
- 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.
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.
Quick Fix Tip
To make this recipe come together even faster, you can cook the chopped carrots and potatoes in the microwave first. Add them to a microwave-safe dish, add just a splash of water, then cook 2–3 minutes, until the potatoes and carrots are tender. Allow them to cool for several minutes – until cool enough to handle. Then transfer to the pot with the cooking onions.
Step Four: Make the Broth
- 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.
- Pour the broth in with the vegetable mixture.
Step Five: Add Broccoli
- Next, add the wine, nutritional yeast flakes, cashews, and broccoli florets/pieces.
- Bring this to a boil, and then reduce the heat to a simmer (low boil).
- Simmer for 20 minutes until the broccoli is tender.
- Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool slightly.
- 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.
Marly’s Tips
Blending hot liquid: First, allow the liquid to cool a bit before blending. Never fill a blender more than half-way with hot liquid. Remove the center cap from the blender lid. Finally, place a towel over the top of the blender lid. Then you’re ready to blend.
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.
- Begin with sourdough, whole wheat bread, or even gluten-free bread (to make this a gluten-free broccoli soup).
- Place the bread cubes in a bowl and then drizzle with olive oil.
- Sprinkle them with garlic powder, salt, and black pepper. Then toss to coat.
- Place coated bread cubes on a baking sheet, spreading evenly across the pan. Try not to crowd them too closely together.
- 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!
Is broccoli soup healthy?
Broccoli is in the cruciferous vegetable family and therefore super healthy. That makes broccoli soup a healthy option to add more fiber, essential vitamins, and minerals to your everyday diet!
Easy Vegan Soup Recipes
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Vegan Broccoli Soup
Ingredients
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
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
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Notes
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.
Enjoy!
This is absolutely amazing!!!!! I keep coming back to it! The problem with this soup is that I can’t stop eating it. I’m not kidding!
As the author of this recipe and taste tester extraordinaire, I’m pleased to report the ease of making this recipe along with the delicious flavor. This is now our favorite soup in our meal prepping routine!