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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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I need to be dairy free and unable to use nutritional yeast at the present time, I can already tell this soup would be delicious and I haven’t even made it yet! Is there something else to use beside the nutritional yeast?
If you only need to be dairy-free, not Whole30, you can replace the nutritional yeast with any dairy-free cheese that you can tolerate! The nutritional yeast is only essential for that cheesy flavor on Whole30, since dairy-free cheeses aren’t allowed on the program.
This is a 5-star recipe. The flavour and texture were spot on. This will become a staple at our house. Thank you very much.
So glad to hear that, Madalin! Thanks so much for the review!
As a warning, I would definitely suggest doubling or tripling this recipe right off the bat. It was creamy, cheesy, savory, goodness in a hot steaming bowl! The added benefit is that it was essentially, wfpb…no manufactured vegan cheeses, etc. If you’re frugal, like me…I
subbed some cashews with tofu, and extended the broth with some added miso. Thanks so much for sharing this gem.
Thank you so much for the compliment and great review, Dawn!! I’m so happy you loved this soup so much!
I can’t wait to try this! I have to be nut free though due to an allergy. Any substitution that would work for the cashews?
You might try full-fat coconut cream. Just keep in mind it’ll give the soup a slight coconut flavor!
Awesome satisfying vegan option for broccoli cheddar soup! I love how clean the ingredients are and it really has a great flavor. I used roasted salted cashews because that’s all I could find, still soaked and rinsed them and I feel it added even more to the depth of flavor! I also used a food processor instead of a blender. Delicious! Perfect consistency and thickness. Also a quick recipe with minimal prep (as far as soup goes). Will definitely make this again.
Thank you so much, Molly! I love the roasted cashews sub – that’s a really great suggestion for extra flavor. Thanks for sharing that with us, and I’m so happy you enjoyed this soup so much!
Love this soup!! I made it again for the 2nd time this week. I used the instant pot (4 min high pressure then quick release). For those who didn’t like the flavour taste your cashew cream and season it before adding it to your soup.
I also used a hand blender at the end to puree it.
Thank you so much for your review, Therese! I’m so happy you enjoyed this soup so much!
This recipe is amazing! Honestly, I thought it was going to taste like the typical vegan cheese, but it actually tasted like real cheese. There might have been a slight difference, but nothing to complain about. Overall, very impressed.
What I’m really curious about…how long can this be stored in the refrigerator? Can it be reheated? Can it be frozen?
So glad you enjoyed it! Yes, it can be reheated and frozen, but the texture may be altered in those processes. It should keep in the fridge for 5 days or so!
Turned out great, thank you for sharing this! I doubled it to meal prep so I have healthy food on the ready. I ended up doing carrot chunks instead and adding them to the blender for colour. All delish 🙂
Thanks so much for your review, Courtney! So happy you loved the soup!
Tasted powdery and Smokey… not good at all. Way too much nutritional yeast.
We’re sorry you had this experience, Kristina, but appreciate the honest feedback.
I have to agree with Kristina, the nutritional yeast completely overpowered the soup… it smelled delicious until I added in the nutritional yeast, and when I tried it, it tasted awfully powdery and zesty.. I added in an extra 1/4 cup of almond milk, but the soup was already getting watery, so I think extra cashews is the way to go on this one. Not a fan of the overbearing taste of nooch. It made my throat dry just tasting how powdery and overly zesty it was 🙁
Oh, no! I’m so sorry that was your experience with the soup, Sarah. I appreciate you sharing your honest feedback, though! I hope you’ll give the recipe another try, maybe starting with just 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast instead of the full half cup.
A cheese connoisseur would never know this is vegan!
Now that’s a compliment!