Healthy Vegan Broccoli Cheese Soup
This healthy vegan broccoli cheddar soup is easy to make without any cream in your Vitamix blender. The recipe is dairy free, oil free, AND gluten free. It’s made with simple vegetarian ingredients like chickpeas, cashews (or sunflower seeds for nut free), cauliflower, carrots, and of course, broccoli! We serve this creamy plant based broccoli cheese soup recipe over a big steaming baked potato for total comfort food.
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Without a doubt, the kitchen appliance that gets used most often in our house is our Vitamix. So much so that we actually have two of them.
And while, yes, they make awesome smoothies, my favorite way to use our Vitamix is for easy blender soups. Like the Vegan Broccoli Cheese Soup we’re sharing today!
In the winter especially, I tend to gravitate towards warm, comforting, stick-to-your-ribs types of meals. But I also know how much it helps me power through those winter just-want-to-stay-in-bed-all-day blues when I place a priority on eating whole foods.
Since that means my beloved boxed vegan mac & cheese is not necessarily gonna cut it every single night, blender soups like this are a DREAM. This is because I can pack a ton of veggies into them that normally wouldn’t excite me all that much (I’m looking at you, cauliflower!), but by the end of it, everything is just creamy, delicious warmth and comfort.
Basically, a bowl full of hugs is what I’m after. And this healthy vegan broccoli cheese soup more than delivers.
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How to Make Vegan Broccoli Cheese Soup in a Vitamix
Crazily enough, this soup really reminds me of that broccoli cheddar soup from Panera that I loved back in my vegetarian days. Only this one is about 10xs healthier which makes me feel pretty badass TBH.
The creamy base is a mixture of carrots, cauliflower, cashews, and chickpeas (totally unplanned but awesome alliteration there) all boiled up and blended with a super flavorful broth (thanks to our homemade bouillon powder) and some yellow mustard to add a punch of that cheddar-y flavor. *swoon*
Once the base is made, you’ll throw in some steamed broccoli, pulse the mixture a few times until the broccoli is all chopped, and pour into bowls!
What do you serve with vegan broccoli soup?
We highly suggest serving this soup either over a big baked potato or topped with a few air-fried croutons to settle in for the dinner of your life.
Trust us. We tested this scenario. A LOT. 😉
Other Creamy Vegan Blender Soup Recipes:
We so hope you enjoy this vegan broccoli cheese soup recipe and find it every bit as useful as we have. If and when you do try it, be sure to share it with us because WE LOVE THAT!
You can rate the recipe and leave a comment below or tag us in your deliciously awesome photos on Instagram. If you’re not already following along, we’re @theplantpowercouple with the “the”.
Happy cooking, friends. Enjoy!
Vegan Broccoli Cheese Soup
Ingredients
- 5 cups water
- 1 large carrot peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 cup frozen cauliflower
- 1 15.5- oz. can of chickpeas not drained
- 1/2 cup unroasted cashews
- 1/4 cup vegan chicken-style bouillon powder
- 1 large head of broccoli stems removed
- 1 Tbsp yellow mustard
- 1 tsp sea salt
For topping:
- 1 batch homemade croutons optional
Instructions
- Add the water, carrot, cauliflower, chickpeas (don’t drain them; add the whole can), cashews, and bouillon powder to a large pot. Cover and bring to a boil. Grab a large colander and add the broccoli to it. When the pot is boiling, turn heat to medium high, place the colander with the broccoli over the boiling water and cover the colander with the pot lid, allowing the broccoli to steam and veggies to boil for 15 minutes.
- Remove the large pot from heat, set the colander with the broccoli aside, and pour the contents of the pot into your Vitamix or food processor. Add the mustard and salt and blend for 1-2 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the steamed broccoli and pulse until the broccoli is evenly chopped.
- If the soup is too thick for you, you can whisk in some hot water before serving. Otherwise, pour the soup into 4 large or 6 small bowls and top with a few homemade croutons. Store leftovers in an air-tight container in your fridge for up to a week or the freezer for a month. Enjoy!
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I’m allergic to cashews. What can I use instead?
Hi, Bobbie. Would sunflower seeds work for you? They’re a great sub for cashews, and many with nut allergies don’t seem to have a problem with the seeds.
If sunflower seeds do work for you, use a 1:1 sub ratio.
Hope this helps!
Would silken tofu work?Family members have allergies to tree nuts and sunflower seeds.
Silken tofu would probably work; I’d use the Mori-Nu shelf-stable type for best results. The texture would be a bit different because you’d be missing out on the fat/richness that cashews or sunflower seeds add here. If you want to mitigate that, you can add 2-4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil or just sub EVOO 1:1 for the cashews.
Delicious!
Thank you for this recipe!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Melissa! Thank you for taking the time to reach out and let us know. We really appreciate that!
I would really like to try this recipe. However, I don’t see any way to print this.
Hi, Cathy! There should be a green “print” button just below the picture in the recipe card section of the post. Hope rthat helps.
I know it’s Vegan, but where does the cheese come into?
Great question, Becky! There’s no actual cheese, vegan or otherwise, in the soup. It does get a tangy cheese flavor and texture from the bouillon and the mix of veggies and cashews used. It’s one of those kitchen-magic moments.
I’ve made lots of vegan broccoli cheddar soups and this is my husband’s new favorite. Said it’s the closest we’ve come to ‘regular’ broccoli cheddar. I trusted the process while throwing frozen cauliflower, a can on chickpeas (which is so convenient), cashews and carrots into a saucepan – and it paid off. Pretty guilt free, too. Thanks!
In the last 24 hours I’ve made the following from your blog: lemon pepper tofu cutlets, condensed cream of chicken soup, chik’n bouillon (my go-to) this broccoli soup, and I have the pot pie on deck. 🙌
I’m so glad you both enjoyed it, Lindsey, and thanks so much for letting us know! You’ve picked some great recipes to start with, and I think you’re really going to enjoy that pot pie! Thank you again for the very nice words. It’s really appreciated!
This was just delicious. I used the whole broccoli including the stems (no prob for Vitamix) and boiled them the last 5 minutes instead of steaming. My non vegan friends could not believe no dairy. Just yummy with bread- and as someone else said- no guilt! This is going on my frequent recipe list. Thanks!!
Woo hoo! So happy to hear this, Layne! Isn’t it the best when people can’t believe there’s no dairy?! 🙂
Hi Brittany
I’m trying the soup just now.
Could you be a little more specific on the amount of broccoli to use? 1 cup? 2 cups?
Thanks!
Mike S
I would say about 2 cups, but the recipe is very forgiving if you want to increase or decrease that amount!
This was one of the best soups I’ve ever tasted. My family, including my 3 year old granddaughter, love it and have asked for it to be on a regular menu rotation. So simple to make and so good!
Thank you so much for the review, Shannon! It’s always a major win when kids like our recipes. You know they are going to be brutally honest! lol 🙂
Broccoli cheddar was always one of my favorites too before going vegan. I’m very excited to try this recipe especially since you’re not using nutritional yeast. Question: could Dijon or spicy brown mustard (or something else) be used instead of yellow mustard? We don’t have that in the house because we don’t like it and I don’t want to buy a bottle just to use a tablespoon of it. Thank you!
Hi! Yes, you could sub dijon or spicy mustard. You can also sub miso paste if that’s an ingredient you have on-hand. I should note that the bouillon powder we use has a nutritional yeast base. You are welcome to try it with a store-bought bouillon, but I can’t guarantee the flavor will be the same!