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Broccoli “Cheddar” Soup
for Environment 911 - “But Make It Vegan” Column

Soup season is in full effect!  My mom has a great broccoli cheddar soup recipe, but it has a lot of cheese and dairy in it, and my stomach just can't do that anymore. I remembered that Hot For Food does vegan queso with potatoes and carrots as the 'cheddar'...and thought: Maybe I can make a hybrid.   

It luckily turned out, for just winging everything, and now you too can have a vegan cheddar broccoli soup on the next cold rainy day.  There are a few things that are optional in this recipe, like the Daiya cheese, if you want to make it a bit cheesier, but you could eliminate it, and it would be just as tasty.  Also, try your hand at freezing some for a later date, esp. since there isn't any dairy in it to freeze! 

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Makes Approx. 6 to 8 Servings 

INGREDIENTS: 

- 2 large heads of broccoli WITH the stems (or frozen stems and a large head of broccoli) 
- 2 onions, chopped 
- 1 large Yukon potato, diced 
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced 
- 3 carrots, peeled and chopped 
- 3 pieces of celery, peeled and chopped 
- 7 cups of veg broth 
- 1 tsp dried oregano 
- 1 cup non-dairy milk 
- 1/2 cup cashews 
- 2 tbsp olive oil 
- salt and pepper 
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast  

optional: 
- 1/2 cup Daiya (or non-dairy) cheddar shreds 

INSTRUCTIONS: 

 Chop the florets off of the broccoli, and trim any leaves away. Cut the ends off of the stems, and discard, then roughly chop the rest of the stem and set aside.  Take the head(s) of the broccoli and cut into small bite-sized florets. In a small pot, steam the broccoli until it is JUST cooked. Too long and they won't hold up in the soup.  

In a large, heavy-bottom pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add in the onions, cooking for a few minutes, then the garlic for an additional minute.  Next add in the carrots, potato, celery, and broccoli stems, season with a bit of salt and pepper. Stir and sauté for a minute and then add 7 cups of the veg broth and bring to a low boil for 10 mins.  In a blender, add the non-dairy milk, and the cashews, nutritional yeast, oregano and blend until creamy.  

Working in batches, add in the broth and veg mixture from the pot until everything has been pureed. You can add a few florets of broccoli at this stage as well. Return to the pot when finished blending. If the soup is too thick you can add a little more broth/water/non-dairy milk to thin it out. But it's all preference.  You can now add in the broccoli florets that you have steamed, and the non-dairy cheese if you're using it.  Heat the broccoli through and it's ready to serve. Season with a bit of fresh pepper and.... 

ENJOY! 

  

 

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I wrote a few recipes for BC Living from when I went camping on the August long weekend (at Twenty Mile Bay) - Gourmet Camping Recipes for Your Next Camping Trip.

Some of them are long, so I figured I’d break each of them down into their own posts (means extra photos too!) - the first being Jackfruit Tacos (click for recipe), followed by breakfast with a Chickpea & Potato Breakfast Hash (recipe for that here), and finally we have Green Curry.

You can 100% make this at home (any of them really), but a lot of the tips are for how to prep before you leave, and minimize effort at the campsite.

“Skip the roasted weenies and indulge in these easy-to-make camping recipes! These dishes might look fancy, but much of the prep work can be done at home (and then frozen), and all of them can be done on a camp stove if there's a fire ban. Oh, and they can also all be made vegan!

So make your grocery list, get shopping and start prepping these delicious and nutritious camping meals...”


Green Curry with Ginger Rice (paired with The Hatch 2019 B. Yanco)

While this may sound way too fancy for a camping meal, it’s essentially a one-pot production that you barely have to monitor. The second pot comes into play if you want to make your rice fresh at the site, but you could make it ahead of time at home and just mix it right into the curry.

Another good thing about this dish is that if there is leftover veg from breakfast (think onion, peppers, potatoes, etc.), you can toss them right in here. No waste and you can chop everything in the morning, meaning more time on the beach.
Once again, this can be made vegan by eliminating the chicken (which I diced and froze ahead of time so by night two it was ready to go and I didn’t have to handle raw chicken on site), or substituting in some tofu, as the rest of it is just veggies!

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 tbsp olive oil

  • 1 can coconut milk

  • ⅔ cup water (approx.)

  • 1 vegetable bouillon cube

  • 2 chicken breasts, diced

  • 1 small onion, diced

  • 2 cloves garlic, minced

  • 2 tbsp (possibly more to taste) green curry paste

  • About 200 g of mushrooms (your choice, but I went with shimeji and shiitake)

  • ½ red pepper, cut into strips

  • 1 or 2 baby bok choy, roughly chopped (spinach works too)

  • About 20 snap peas, ends trimmed

  • Thumb of ginger (optional), sliced

  • 1 cup jasmine rice

  • Basil, optional

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Cook the rice in a pot to the specifications on the package (adding in some optional ginger for flavour, removing after rice is finished) and set aside.

  2. In a pan, heat the olive oil on medium and then add the onion, sautéing for a few minutes, before adding the garlic and the green curry paste.

  3. Add in the chicken if you are using it and cook until just no longer pink.

  4. Add the coconut milk into the pan and stir until the paste has been dissolved. Then add in the mushrooms and red pepper. You may need to thin the sauce out more here, depending how you like your curry. If so, dissolve the bouillon cube in the two-thirds cup of water, and then add it to the pan. (You can transfer to a large pot if your pan doesn’t fit this.)

  5. Bring to a boil and then turn to low and let it simmer. You can taste and see if you need more curry paste (if so it may be easiest to dissolve it in a small bowl with a bit of the curry broth, and then add it in).

  6. After the liquid has reduced a bit, and you have the spices where you like, add in the bok choy and the snap peas and cook for a few minutes until just tender (you want a bit of crunch to them still).

  7. Turn off the heat, plate the rice (with the ginger discarded) and then scoop the curry mix on to it. Tear the basil and add on top (optional) and enjoy the view.

  8. Drinks: There’s not much you can’t pair with a spicy curry, but a cold, dry, white wine is a sure bet. I tried The Hatch Winery’s B. Yanco a few months back from the Stable House Bistro takeout window, and fell in love. I’ve paired it with so many meals since, and on the beach as the sun went down sipped on between bites of this dish was another success.

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