Broccoli Soup for Hillary and family!

       

       Broccoli soup is one of those weird items that EVERYONE likes.  As a child people don’t want to eat green vegetables but puree it into a green slime and then add a ton of cheese then kids will eat it up.  When the lovely Hillary, sister to my best friend and fellow vegan Vanessa Ragland (http://vanessaragland.com), requested this one it was a natural fit for faux comfort.   I will say that my Broccoli soup might not be exactly what your grandma used to make, but you will love it and so will the kids in your family.  Just call it monster snot and they will eat it up!  (Although if serving to anyone over the age of 10 monster snot might not be the best way to detail your menu, unless you hang out with really great people.)

      This is a pretty simple soup, but might have some surprising ingredients, because I make my broccoli soup kind of like chowder in order to replace the high amounts of cheese that most people use when making this monster snot.

Ingredients:  (As always I don’t usually give exact measurements of things because I don’t really measure when I cook so feel free to increase or decrease amounts to your tastes and your families’ desires.

For Soup:

·         Fresh or frozen broccoli (duh) - broccoli is one of those veggies that when making soup it really does not matter if you use fresh or frozen, so buy whatever is cheapest at the store.  If you want organic frozen is usually cheaper.

·         Sliced Tofutti American cheese.  (Or if I was making this for Vanessa who can’t eat soy I would use vegan American rice based cheese)

·         Vegan Sour Cream (For Vanessa I would just leave this out)

·         Vegan Chicken stock or bouillon

·         Small sweet onion

·         A couple stalks of Celery

·         Cauliflower (If you buy frozen broccoli you can usually find a broccoli cauliflower mix which would work fine)  I add cauliflower because it adds thickness and texture to the soup that you would normally get from lots of fat and cheese

·         Vegan Butter

·         Nutritional Yeast

·         Almond Milk

·         Curry Powder

·         Salt and Pepper

For Croutons:

·         Day old (or lots of days old) sliced bread of any variety

·         Olive oil

·         Garlic Powder

·         Salt and Pepper

      So now that you have the ingredients you are going to be amazed how easy this comes together.  Start by Sautéing the onion and celery in a couple of tablespoons of vegan butter, until they are soft.  When soft add 2 not chicken bouillon cubes and cook until they are have dissolved into a paste.  Add 5 cups (ish) of almond milk.  Bring the milk mixture to a boil and add 3 cups(ish) of broccoli and 2 cups (ish) of cauliflower.  Bring back to a boil and cook over medium heat for about 10 min.  Add 2 teaspoons curry powder (this tastes great but also makes it look a little cheesier), 2 table spoons of nutritional yeast, salt and pepper to taste.  Make sure that the flavor is where you want it to be, but remember you are going to blend this soup so the flavor will change slightly.  Add ½ cup of vegan sour cream, and 6 slices of vegan cheese of your choice.  Bring back to a boil and cook for an additional 5 minutes over medium heat.   Now get out your immersion blender and boat motor your soup until it is fairly smooth.

(Again if you don’t have an immersion blender you can use a regular blender but be careful because the steam will create pressure and could make a huge mess.)    

After blending taste again and make any last minute adjustments to seasoning.  Place on low heat and let it wait for you as you make the croutons for the top.

Cube your old bread and place in a large bowl. 

Add in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper, and garlic powder.  Mix around until all pieces are coated.  Spread the seasoned cubes out on a large baking tray and put in a 375 degree preheated oven for about 10 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Now serve your soup with croutons on top and enjoy.  Monster snot at its finest!  This is a great recipe for kids to help with because it is basically just dropping ingredients, and because you blend them they don’t have to be cut uniformly!

Enjoy!  This soup is good enough for friends, family, and children of all ages!