cheesy vegan cream of broccoli soup

I know it’s january and everyone and their mother is touting healthy recipes, new year resolutions, and the final curtain drawing closed on 2020. It’s also traditionally the month of whole30; a total food and gut reset. If you aren’t familiar with whole30, the basic gist is cutting out alcohol, dairy, sugar, grains, gluten, processed foods and foods known to be highly irritable to the digestive tract.

Here’s the thing. Nobody wants (or needs) to give up foods to be happy. While I will definitely subscribe to a january or september whole30 to reset my gut and health habits, I also, for the most part, follow a lot of the eliminations and substitutions touted by the plan when cooking daily for our family. Not out of any need to be healthy (hello wine!); not because some of them are just better taste wise (hello homemade avocado mayo); but because of my kiddos.

For the first three years of their lives, my twins couldn’t eat dairy or egg without breaking out in hives - so I learned to cook with out them. While they both outgrew their allergies, one still has super sensitivity to excess dairy. Another one of my kiddos has an autoimmune disorder that affects how her body reacts to food, and has to avoid large amounts of sugar, red meat, and dairy. While I don’t omit the butter when entertaining (the horror!); it’s such an easy substitute to use ghee instead.

It’s also fun and challenging for me, to come up with other versions of our favorite foods that taste just as great as the original or even surpass them, but without causing my kiddos discomfort.

That’s the case with this broccoli soup. I was looking for a way to both recreate my old school soup plantation favorite and to use up the copious amounts of broccoli we’ve be getting without resorting to stir-fry. This soup nailed it. It’s been lunch on repeat for the past month or so. Easy to reheat, super filling, and tastes so so good. I can’t imagine making it any other way

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of raw cashews, soaked in water at least 4-8 hours ahead of time

1 Tbsp nutritional yeast

2/3 cup coconut milk

3 heads of broccoli, sliced, stems included

2 cloves of garlic

8 cups of vegetable stock (you can swap chicken stock if you prefer)

2 tsp kosher salt

Directions:

Place broccoli and garlic in a large stock pot. Cover with broth, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to simmer and cook until broccoli is just fork tender and still bright green.

While broccoli is coming to a boil, combine cashews, coconut milk and nutritional yeast in a food processer. Blend until combined and smooth.

Add cooked broccoli, garlic, and 2 cups of broth to food processer mixture. Blend until combined and smooth (I use the soup function on my vitamix).

Serve immediately, or refrigerate in individual portions for easy lunch or dinner options.