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This cheesy vegan broccoli soup is rich and creamy, easy to make, and a perfect paleo fall recipe. Whole30 compliant and totally dairy-free, there’s plenty of cheesy flavor but no weird ingredients!
There’s this memory I have of my childhood, a collage of moments recounted to me, flash photography prints I’ve been shown, a slice of my early narrative pasted together over time. I’m standing on the wooden chair with a blue balloon tied onto the hooped back in a dark restaurant with thrift store finds tacked on the walls.
I’m wearing a lavender dress with white trim, and my hair’s pulled half back, secured with a grosgrain bow. My bangs are heavy, my eyes are big and dark, my smile is tiny yet cartoonishly exaggerated. My face is illuminated with the glow from 5 candles, waving gently in front of me, burrowed into the white buttercream frosting atop a Betty Crocker cake mix cake brought from home.
Happy birthday to YOU, happy birthday TO you, happy BIRTHday dear Cheryl, happy BIRTHday to you…
And everyone’s clapping, and I’m blowing out the candles, still grinning, and asking my mom if I can lick the frosting off the bottom of the little pink wax sticks. We’re at the Broccoli Cheese Soup Place, aka TGIFriday’s, as we are every childhood birthday during this particular stretch. We went often, my parents certainly thrilled by knowing I’d actually eat what I ordered and by the fact I’d willingly eat something green. And for kid birthdays, they’d stand me up on a chair, provide a latex balloon, sing loudly, and clap heartily.
To this day, broccoli cheese soup is one of my all-time favorite soups, if not my hands-down forever-and-ever favorite. And what’s not to love? Heaps of rich, gooey cheese stirred into an already creamy base with tender broccoli to make you feel better about your choices. I could eat it every day, except…
Heaps of rich, gooey cheese stirred into an already creamy base with only a handful of tender broccoli to make you feel better about your choices. With fall on the horizon, I knew I had to create a healthier, dairy-free version of the American favorite, leaving out all of the ingredients that make you feel sluggish and integrating more nutrient-dense foods.
This cheesy vegan broccoli soup is Whole30-compliant, too, (and paleo, of course!) making it a perfect fall weeknight dinner on a round, reappearing as early-lunchtime-inducing leftovers the next day. And since it’s dairy-free, it’s easy to freeze!
Why this recipe is so good:
- I based this paleo broccoli cheese soup on the offerings at Panera and TGIFriday’s, hoping to convert the dairy-loving diehards to my cheesy vegan broccoli soup substitution.
- This cheesy vegan broccoli soup is rich and creamy with plenty of delish cheese flavor, tender broccoli, and carrots.
- It’s easy to make and comes together quickly, made originally one night when a bout of morning sickness left me uninterested in the chicken dish we’d meal planned. Instead, I whipped together this vegan broccoli soup and hurriedly snapped photos before diving in.
And oh, oh, oh. The little girl at the Broccoli Cheese Soup Place has certainly grown up.
Variations
- If you’re vegan, definitely use olive oil or vegan butter to cook your onion in. Make sure you use vegetable stock to boil your broccoli and carrots.
- If you’re not vegan, you can use ghee to sauté the onion, and you can use chicken stock to boil the broccoli.
Tips
- Start with 1/4 cup nutritional yeast and work up to 1/2 cup. If you’re vegan, you’re probably super used to that “nooch” flavor! But if you’re not, 1/4 cup will probably hit that sweet spot for you.
- Add turmeric to this cheesy vegan broccoli soup for color: start with just a pinch and work up to the saturation of yellow you want!
How to make it
Sauté onion in a medium saucepan over medium heat in a bit of olive oil; cook until translucent. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, about 30 seconds or until fragrant.
Add stock, broccoli, and carrots; cover. Simmer about 10-15 minutes or until broccoli is tender.
In a high-speed blender, combine cashews, water, mustard powder, smoked paprika, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, almond milk, and cayenne pepper. Blend on high speed until completely smooth. Pour into saucepan and stir. Season with salt and pepper, then ladle the vegan broccoli soup into serving bowls and garnish with chopped parsley.
To make this vegan broccoli soup, I used…
Other recipes you’ll love
- Best Vegan Queso Blanco (Whole30, Paleo)
- Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce
- Paleo Spinach Artichoke Dip (Vegan)
- Vegan Alfredo Sauce
- Vegan Seitan “Chicken”
- Hearty Vegan Enchiladas
Cheesy Vegan Broccoli Soup (Whole30, Paleo, Dairy Free)
Equipment
- high-speed blender
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or ghee, if not vegan
- 1 small onion diced
- 1-2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups vegetable stock or chicken stock if on Whole30 or not vegan
- 4 cups broccoli florets
- 1 ½ cups shredded carrot about 2 medium
- 1 cup raw cashews soaked for 4 hours if you don’t have a high-speed blender
- 1 cup water
- ½ teaspoon mustard powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice about half a lemon
- ¼ cup almond milk
- 1 dash cayenne pepper dash
- sea salt to taste
- freshly cracked pepper to taste
- fresh parsley to serve, optional
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat olive oil. Add onion and sauté until translucent, stirring often. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, about 30 seconds, or until fragrant.
- Add stock, broccoli, and carrots, then cover with a lid. Simmer until broccoli is tender, about 10-15 minutes.
- In a high-speed blender, combine cashews, water, mustard powder, smoked paprika, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, almond milk, and cayenne pepper. Blend at high speed until very, very smooth. Pour mixture into broccoli mixture and stir until smooth. Add plenty of sea salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste. Spoon into serving bowls and top with fresh chopped parsley.
Video
Approximate Information for One Serving
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
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Can this be done without the nutritional yeast?
It can, but you’d be missing a lot of the yummy cheesy flavor 🙂
What is best about this recipe is that my kids love it. Usually takes some persuasion to try new things, but whit this I had no problem. Thank you so much for sharing, and definitely trying more of your vegan recipes.
Not going to lie… I’m kind of jealous! Ha! My toddler is still apparently allergic to anything green… I’m so glad you and your family liked it, Ashley <3
This sounds amazing, although I wish you wouldn’t label it as being vegan! I can see someone trying to helpfully make this for a vegan family member, and including the chicken stock and ghee. Many people don’t seem to have any idea what vegan actually means, and I would hate to be served this as is and told it was vegan. Maybe include a note in the recipe like “use chicken stock for omnivores, vegetable stock for vegans.”
There are notes in the recipe 🙂
I’m pretty allergic to cashews ?Is there a suitable substitute?
So….. we can work with this 🙂 Try steaming 2 cups of cauliflower and then blend it until smooth with 1 cup of coconut cream. Replace the almond milk with more coconut cream/full-fat milk. It won’t be QUITE as rich or creamy, but I think it’ll still be good. Please let me know if you try it! I’d love to hear how it goes.
Sounds awesome! How many servings For this recipe?
About 4-6 depending on serving size!
Thank you for this recipe! I made it tonight and loved it; the texture is perfectly creamy and the flavors are lovely. And my fourteen year old daughter, who is a huge fan of the traditional recipe, thinks it is delicious as well. She also really appreciates the “making better choices” aspect of it. Oh, and I made the cranberry orange bread. Absolutely to die for! You are a wonder!
I’m so so glad to hear that you liked both of those recipes! Thank you so much for your sweet comment, Sarah ❤️
My son’s favorite soup is Panera’s broccoli cheese, but after discovering that he has an intolerance to gluten and dairy, we had to give it up. I made this for him as a special surprise for dinner last night and he devoured it! Happy days! We have very little left over but I am wondering if this is freezable? I’d love to make a big batch to just warm up for an afterschool snack for him. Thank you for all all the work you do!
I am so, so thrilled to hear that! Yes, I think this would freeze beautiful, thanks to it being dairy-free. You could even freeze it in little individual portions in a silicon mold and pop them out whenever you need! Such a great idea, Melissa. Let me know if you freeze it and how it goes!
this recipe worked out beautifully! sharing it with all my vegan and dairy free friends! i followed the recipe as instructed, with no ingredient substitutions. the only adjustment i made was to whiz it a little with an immersion blender once it was finished
That’s wonderful to hear! And another friend of mine did the same – blending it up a bit at the end. Great suggestion! I’m so glad you liked it, and thank you for coming back to tell me so 🙂
My boyfriend and I made this recipe and it was amazing! It was very filling and super tasty! It was also very easy to prepare and make. Cheryl is a genius.
Hi Jen!!! I’m so glad you tried it and liked it 🙂 So happy to hear from you!
TGIFridays is always what comes to mind when I picture my favorite cheesy cream of broccoli soup I’ve been craving this!
But..tell me…high speed blender? I have a normal blender, an immersion blender and a food processor. Which should I use?