When I was a child, my Mommom made the best cream of broccoli soup. I still remember sitting in her kitchen on a cold and rainy Saturday, slurping up a giant bowl of this goodness and asking for seconds. It always warmed me from the inside out and brought a big smile to my face. It was one of my very favorite childhood meals. Unfortunately, I never got her recipe for it. So, I’ve been trying to replicate it for the past 20 years without much success. It didn’t particularly help the quest when we switched to a plant-based lifestyle several years ago. It’s hard to capture that same creaminess without the butter and cream!
New Possibilities
But then earlier this month, my mom told me in passing about a recipe she was making in her Instant Pot. She was making a healthier version of my grandmother’s soup using broccoli, cauliflower (to add the creaminess) and a couple tablespoons of butter and some cheese. And THAT got me thinking how I could make this soup vegan.
After experimenting a bit, I realized that not only could I make this soup completely plant-based, but I could also make it super fast, with less than 5-minutes of active prep time. The total time in the Instant Pot is a bit longer—about 45 minutes: 15 minutes to pressurize, 15 minutes to cook and 15 minutes to de-pressurize. But the beauty of the Instant Pot is that you can set it and forget it and move on to doing other things. It makes it super helpful when you’re trying to multi-task. Hence, this recipe became another one of my 5-Minute Meals you can make for dinner on a crazy weeknight! And it only has 4 ingredients!
Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup
Equipment
- Instant Pot or Electric Pressure Cooker
- Immersion Blender
Ingredients
- 1 10-oz package frozen broccoli (I like to use organic)
- 1 10-oz package frozen cauliflower (I like to use organic)
- 2.5 cups filtered water
- 1 pouch Daiya Cheddar Style Deluxe Cheeze Sauce
Instructions
- Dump frozen broccoli and frozen cauliflower into Instant Pot.
- Add water.
- Seal Instant Pot and set to 15 minutes cook time on high.
- After it has finished cooking, let it depressurize naturally for about 15 minutes, then vent.
- Open and pour in the pouch of Daiya Cheeze Sauce
- Use immersion blender to blend until smooth. It will seem very runny at first, but will thicken a bit.
- Serve.
Notes
One note, if you don’t have an immersion blender, you can still make this by pouring it into a regular blender and blending in small batches. It might take a bit more time, but it will work. I used to do that all the time before my hubby got me my immersion blender for Christmas a couple years ago.
Now all I need to do is come up with a healthy recipe for some drop biscuits to go with this. Hmmm…