Another bowl of green. Under normal circumstances I would not have immediately followed the (secretly spinach hued) pistachio pudding with a creamy bowl of broccoli soup, but it's St. Patrick's Day on Saturday and my festive food plans this year are for green novelties. Hey look how festive! It's green! Oh and hey I just so happen to want you to eat more green stuff. In response to my holiday food plan, my neighbor declared, "Everything's less fun with Mom!"
Two-year-old Felix, who I mentioned recently is going through a super-picky phase, totally likes this soup. "MMm, that good. You like that, Mommy?" he said. Of course after about three more bites he decided, "My done. My be excused, please?" But four bites on his own with no trickery or coercion? That's good stuff.
This soup might sound improbable. You essentially steam a bunch of hard winter vegetables until they're sweetly soft and then throw them in the blender with some rice milk and salty white miso paste and blend it all up until it's thick and creamy and just irresistably comforting. If you have ten minutes and a bit of winter left, you've got to give this a try. Happy St. Patrick's Day!
10 Minute Broccoli Cheese Soup
This recipe morphed out of Kim's description of a quick pasta sauce she made for dinner from the Veggie Lovers Cook Book
makes: 4 servings or about 6 cups of soup
takes: okay, maybe 12 - 14 minutes
- 1 medium carrot, chopped
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 2 medium potatoes, chopped
- 1 large head broccoli, chopped
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons vegan butter
- 1 cup rice milk
- 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoons white miso (if using a stronger miso, use a little less)
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- salt and pepper to taste
Place all the vegetables, water, and butter in a covered sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer and set the timer for 10 minutes.
Put the rest of the ingredients in the blender. When the vegetables are tender, add them to the blender, and puree to the consistency you prefer. I prefer it just shy of completely smooth - creamy with a bit of texture. The Jaconi Biery dudes would rather it be totally chunk-free.
Serve.
