Vegan Broccoli Potato Soup Recipe
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Creamiest Broccoli and Potato Soup Ever
When I stepped outside the house early this morning I could literally smell it in the air: soup season has just arrived. Not quite settled in yet but it’s definitely here unpacking. So make sure to dust off that heavy bottom stock pot and park it on the stove up until spring.
If you are looking for some super tasty ways to get more broccoli in your system, this comforting homemade broccoli soup is the way friends. And then make sure to also try our most favorite vegan clam chowder + white bean soup <—DIVINE!
It’s like Broccoli Cheese Soup & Potato Soup Got Married!
Creamy cashews and nutritional yeast blended together with golden potatoes and homemade veggie stock give this soup that super rich, cheddar cheesy creaminess without the addition of any cream or dairy at all.
It’s magically dreamy, healthy, oil free, vegan, easy to make, cheesy but there’s No Cheese in sight (Dairy Free & Cholesterol -Free) + Lusciously Creamy!
This is definitely the time to bring out your powerful blender, totally worth the clean up as the silky texture you’ll achieve is pure perfection!
Recipe Tips
- Leeks – Feel free to use a leek in place of the onions for the ultimate potato leek soup. My recipes usually change depending on what’s in the pantry. Crispy smoked tempeh bits add nice salty crunch to the final dish so sprinkle some of those on top if you have them.
- Cashews – No need to soak the cashews in advance, the boiling process will get them perfectly soft to be blended in the creamiest of soup. This is a super easy recipe that also makes fabulous leftovers to refrigerate or freeze for a later date.
- Variation – I’ve also experimented making this soup with a mix of potatoes and cauliflower florets, and although it was good this version is the best. If you need to use up some cauliflower florets just make this amazing lemony cauliflower soup instead.
how to make vegan broccoli potato soup
Vegan Broccoli Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 1/2 yellow onion (or 1/2 leek) -chopped
- 4 cloves garlic -minced
- 2 lb golden potatoes (scrubbed, rinsed & diced)
- 1 large carrot -diced
- 1 celery stick -chopped
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 7-8 cups vegetable stock (low sodium)
- 5-6 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 lb broccoli florets
- 1 pinch sea salt (to taste)
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes
- 1/3 cup fresh chives -snipped for garnish
- 1/2 tsp turmeric (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat a heavy stock up over medium low heat and sauté the onion in a splash of water (or a drizzle of olive oil) until translucent.
- Add the sea salt, pepper flakes, celery and carrots and give everything a nice toss. Cover with a lid and sweat a few more minutes until the carrots begin to soften.
- Add the garlic, potatoes, cashews and vegetable stock and bring everything to a simmer. Stir in the nutritional yeast, cover with a lid and cook 20 minutes or until the potatoes and cashews have softened.
- Transfer the soup to a powerful mixer and carefully purée until silky smooth. ( the Vitamix did an exponentially better job at this than my immersion blender).
- Transfer the creamy soup back to the pot and bring to a simmer again. Add the broccoli florets, cover with a lid and cook a few more minutes until the broccoli is softened to your liking. Take good care not to overcook it, 3 to 5 minutes should yield that perfect al dente texture. Alternatively you can steam the broccoli separately while your soup is cooking.
- Taste and adjust seasoning with the sea salt. Add more vegetable stock at this point to thin out the soup if you prefer.
- Serve hot with extra red pepper flakes and the fresh chives.
Video
Notes
- After experimenting a few times with this soup I came to the conclusion that there is no need to soak the cashews in advance. By boiling them in the soup they will become soft and easy to blend in a powerful blender.
- I adapted the original recipe to yield a larger batch as the only complaint about this soup has been that the portions were too small and people didn't have any leftovers. Problem solved!
Nutrition
This soup is amazing, my children loved it, my husband lived it’s a winner. I forgot to soak the cashews so I juts cooked the soup longer and it turned out perfect once blended.
i wonder if sweet potatoes are a good sub for the golden ones
Sweet potatoes work well too, just know the flavors and colors will be different.Enjoy!
I made this for dinner tonight. It was soooo good!!! Thanks for the recipe!
This soup was hearty and delicious! It was very easy to make as well. We enjoyed every bite.
This soup was incredibly easy to make and it tastes delicious. It’s hearty and filling. Perfect meal to fill you up and warm you up. We will make it part of our regular rotation. <3
So happy you loved it Christine, this is always on rotation at our house too, it seems everyone is happy with a bowl of this and I can get that broccoli in their bellies without having to beg. Ha! Winner winner!
This soup is outstanding! It’s the best thing I ate since I went vegan!!! Love this recipe ❤️
Woohoo, thank you Tosia, i could go for a big pot of this right now myself. Enjoy!
Do the cashews have to be raw? I have roasted, lightly salted ones.
You can use the roasted ones too, just rinse them well and soak in hot water!
Made this the other night and it turned out AMAZING! The cashews make it nice an creamy, and I love all of the flavors. Definitely something I will be making again! Perfect for making the cold winter nights feel cozy!
Can something be subbed for the cashews? We have cashew and peanut allergies in my home. TIA
I have not tried this but I suspect macademia nuts would be a great replacement.
I made this for dinner tonight. It was delicious!
We have nut allergies. Has anyone tried this without nuts.
You can just leave out the nuts and add an extra potato or two. Report back if you ret it 🙂
Do you think some of the cashews could be replaced with white beans to remove some fat, or would that completely alter the flavor?
I suspect you could, just don’t eliminate the cashews entirely, I would go for half cashews + half white beans. Report back if you try it that way.
I would try replacing the cashews with coconut cream or full fat coconut milk.
Hi there! I just made this soup and substituted the cashews for navy beans. very creamy and very good!
I made this for dinner tonight and OMG it’s delicious!!! My two picky eaters (husband and son) loved it! I ended up adding additional steamed diced potatoes, carrots and broccoli. The guys like soft veggies. I tried to make the coconut bacon but burned it 🤦🏽♀️😩 I’ll try it the next time I make the soup, which will be very soon. 😋 Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe
Do you think I could freeze the base (without the broccoli) after made, so I could take out and prepare when I have the broccoli?
Sure!
Wow! This soup is delicious! My omnis even loved it. They couldn’t believe how “cheesy” it was. Will definitely make this again.
Do you think you could use russet potatoes instead? Thanks!
Yes you can just make sure to peel them first so your soup won’t turn a brownish color.
This soup was delicious. I will definitely make this again. My husband loved it.
I had a huge bag of broccoli that I needed to use up. I found this recipe in a search and I am so glad that I did! It is going on my rotation for sure! It’s creamy and smooth. It’s super filling. I have enough to freeze some for one of those lazy evenings. I would say it’s about 4-6 servings. I did end up adding black salt for flavor and double the nutritional yeast, because why not!
What is the reason for adding the yeast? Can it be omitted without causing issues with the end result?
It’s just nutritional yeast, it ads nice flavor to the soup much like a boullion cube and also has lots of B vitamins.
This recipe is amazing! Thank you so much, my entire family loved it.
This is such a yummy and easy to make recipe. I thought as I added the broccoli that next I would steam them, then I see you already suggested that (hmm slow down me haha), This is be one of our regular go to’s. Thanks so much.
Ha, i prefer steaming the broccoli myself, this way it’s perfect every time. I do the same with my creamy green bean soup. Enjoy!
This looks amazing but I’m new to cooking and confused by the first instruction. What does “preheat a heavy stock up” mean?
Thanks for your help!
It means to put the pot on the stove, turn on the range and let it heat up a bit before adding your ingredients.
Delicious!
Thanks for the great recipes and work you do for us. Please Please Please list the ingredients in the same order as the instructions.
Hi Florentina!
I am so impressed with the way this turned out! I didn’t think it was going to resemble broccoli cheese soup but it absolutely did!
Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you Florentina!!, your recipe for the soup is amazing , it came out delicious , my family enjoyed it, you’re so creative putting together all those ingredients!!!!
This was soooooo delicious! Made it per the recipe. It was satisfying and totally hit the spot – will definitely be making it again. Thank you!
This was so delicious! I’m impressed by how cheesy and filling it is without being heavy. I followed the recipe pretty exactly (minus the chive garnish) and it turned out great. The recipe doesn’t mention when to add the (optional) turmeric, so I sprinkled a bit in with the broccoli because that’s when I realized I hadn’t used it, but I probably didn’t add enough to make much of an impact. Do you think it should go in earlier?
Making this right now, and can not believe how gorgeous it smells and tastes! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
HI, this soup was delicious. I modified it slightly while making based on a vegan mac and cheeze I make. I added juice of a half of a lemon, a few dashes of vegan Worcestershire and paprika. It tasted just like a delicious broccoli cheese soup I haven’t had for 20 or more years. Thank you!
Mine came out brown, not yellow. I used Russet potatoes, so I assume that’s why. My 11 yr old said it looked like vomit (she’s not completely wrong) but it tasted good. I left out the nutritional yeast because she’s sensitive to it. I halved this recipe and it still made 6 servings. If I have golden potatoes on hand sometime, I may try this again and see if I can get a better color.
Hey Abby, to achieve that pretty golden color you really want to use the Yukon gold potatoes in this soup and also add a little pinch of turmeric. If you used Russets you must peel them first but they still won’t yield that nice golden soup.
Delicious! I added 1-2 tbsp (to taste) Dijon, lots of black pepper and some oat milk at the end to make it even creamier. My immersion blender worked well to blend it smoothly (I blended for a long time). Super creamy and exactly the flavor I was looking for to satisfy my broccoli soup craving! Thank you 💜
This looks and sounds DELICIOUS! Can you suggest the best nut alternative as we have severe cashew/nut allergies in our house. I often use sunflower seeds but this time when I tried them the soup had little “bits” in it but the flavor was really good. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
The sunflower seeds are great, in order the get them super creamy you must use a really powerful blender. It’s the only way i am able to get the cashews that creamy too.
Halfway through I realized my broccoli was bad and I just added extra carrots and peas for texture and made homemade challah croutons, topped with some vegan cheese and I am OBSESSED!!! this is the best soup ever!!!
This soup was so savory and delicious. LOVED it!
SO GOOD!!! I am blown away by the flavors in this soup. I added some Colby plant-based VioLife cheese to the top for extra cheesy goodness!
Thank you so much for sharing!
This was fabulous!! I had to make a substitution for the cashews since my daughter has a severe cashew allergy. So I used unsweetened Milkadamia (Macadamia Milk) in place of them. Everything else I followed pretty much exactly. Because I didn’t have to puree the cashews, I was able to use an immersion blender instead and the consistency of the soup was perfect. I pan fried some vegan bacon, crumbled it up and put that on top and yum yum!! I brought leftovers into work with me for lunch, and here I am at 10:30am sneaking bites of it! LOL. Definitely a keeper!!
This soup is amazing! I use it as a base and switch up the veggies. Today I subbed air fried potatoes and orange/ yellow peppers for the broccoli and it was heaven in my mouth! Yum!!
The consistency was nice, but it was bland for me so I added lots of crushed red pepper and salt and some rosemary.I halved the amount of nutritional yeast cause I’ve had bad experiences in the past with the flavor being overwhelming, I think next time I’ll add the entire amount you recommended. I still wasn’t feeling it was really good and flavorful so I tried it over some freshly made jasmine rice and it was fabulous!! Thank you! Can I freeze it with the broccoli already in it?
Hi Alisa! The nutritional yeast is a major flavor component of this recipe, it’s where the umami cheesiness comes from. If anything I’d suggest adding even more, not less. The important thing is to use a non-fortified organic nutritional yeast, the fortified ones have added synthetic vitamins which could explain your past experience with it. I’m glad it all turned out well in the end and you enjoyed the soup 🙂 ~ Florentina Xo’s
My goodness is this soup good! My entire family gobbled it up. This was so filling and light at the same time. I will be adding this to my favorite recipes! The best part is that there is plenty leftover for lunch tomorrow!
Wow! This is great, thanks for posting Florentina.
New favourite.
This was really delicious! If I didn’t make it, I would’ve thought it was a true broccoli cheddar. I definitely needed to add more salt to get a more cheesy flavor.
This soup tastes amazing y’all, it’s just so del ious I can’t believe it! My entire family loved it and they didn’t believe me when I finally told them it’s vegan. I’m gonna make this every week until July you beat count on that baby! Thank you kindly for the recipe Veggie!
Made this yesterday and really enjoyed it! Reminiscent of broccoli cheese but so much better. My (omni) husband loved it as well. We ate it with fresh baked corn bread.
I did find it needed extra S&P. This was the first recipe of yours I’ve tried, looking forward to trying more.
Hi Ida, so happy you all enjoyed the soup! I leave the extra salt and pepper to your discretion as I like to encourage training our palette to less salt for better health. ~ Florentina Xo’s
Absolutely delicious! I used less garlic and no nutritional yeast, and it was perfect for my tastes. I had broccoli from my garden, and this was a wonderful way to use it. Thanks for a delicious and easy recipe.