Creamy Broccoli Soup

The PCRM website has a number of very interesting articles to read about health.  I recently (about 3 weeks ago) signed up their "21 day Vegan Kickstart" program and received an email from them each day.  Unfortunately, I have not had the time or organization to stick to it and follow along, but since I have all the emails saved I know I can and will get with the program in time.  Meanwhile, I did manage to read some of the emails and enjoyed reading the recipes. I even managed to cook one!! I really am ''kitchen illiterate" and don't do much in that room of my house, but since becoming Vegan I am more interested than I ever was before.

The following recipe is one that was emailed to me recently from PCRM.   As soon as I read it I knew I wanted to make it. It's easy enough even for me to make, and yet healthy and sounded delicious too.  One evening each month, I go to a Vegan Potluck dinner and I decided to make this soup for just that occasion.  It really was easy to make and did taste good, though I found it a little bit bland. Since I rarely use salt I tend to find most recipes call for too much salt, and most soups in restaurants are so salty I can't eat them (and now that I'm Vegan I don't want to eat them as they are meat or cream based).  I brought home left over soup as there is so much food there that we always have left overs, and I added some Mrs. Dash seasoning to it as well as a bit more Himalayan Crystal Salt and fresh ground pepper. This helped a lot and I really quite enjoyed it.  I plan to make this soup again in future and do a bit of experimenting with it.  Also, I had Almond milk in the house but not Rice milk, so used the Almond.  It works just fine.

 Creamy Broccoli Soup

 

This soup gives the texture and taste of a rich creamy soup without the added dairy and high saturated fat content. Enjoy it with whole wheat or rice crackers.

Makes about 8 1-cup servings

 

Ingredients:

2 medium potatoes, scrubbed and diced
2 medium celery stalks, sliced
6 cups broccoli florets
2 cups water
3 cups plain rice milk, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 - 4 tablespoons Sesame Seasoning  

Place potatoes, celery, broccoli, and water in a large pot. Bring to a simmer. Cover and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until potato chunks are tender when pierced with a sharp knife (do not overcook).

Transfer about 3 cups of the vegetables to a blender. Add 2 cups rice milk, basil, tarragon, salt, and black pepper. Blend for about 60 seconds, or until completely smooth. Pour blended mixture into a clean pot.

Place remaining vegetables in blender along with the cooking liquid and remaining 1 cup rice milk. Blend vegetables until they are completely smooth or leave them slightly chunky, depending on your taste. Combine blended mixtures, then stir in Sesame Seasoning. Heat gently, stirring frequently, until steamy.

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Per serving (1 cup): 126 calories; 2.8 g fat; 0.4 g saturated fat; 19.7% calories from fat; 0 mg cholesterol; 3.4 g protein; 23.8 g carbohydrates; 6.1 g sugar; 3.8 g fiber; 343 mg sodium; 187 mg calcium; 2.1 mg iron; 41.2 mg vitamin C; 532 mcg beta-carotene; 1.8 mg vitamin E

Recipe from Foods That Fight Pain by Neal Barnard, M.D.; recipe by Jennifer Raymond, M.S., R.D.