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Cheddar-Broccoli Soup

Lightened up Cheddar-Broccoli Soup (Secret Recipe Club)

naturalnoshing
I've been anticipating this day for a month now -- it's my first post from the Secret Recipe Club. When I first started blogging, I came across the Secret Recipe Club but wasn't able to join because of the requirements (new blog, not enough posts etc). Last September, I met all the requirements and applied but there was a long waiting list. I hadn't heard back until early last month with the news -- I was finally accepted!
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Ingredients
  

  • 2 heads of broccoli with stems, chopped fine or very fine (depending on what texture you prefer your soup)
  • 3 cups unsweetened plain rice milk (I used Good Karma Whole Grain Brown Rice)
  • 1 white or yellow onion, finely chopped
  • 2 Tbsp butter, ghee, olive oil or Earth Balance (use oil or earth balance for vegan)
  • 1/4 cup brown rice flour
  • 2 - 3 cups chicken broth or homemade stock or vegetable broth (use vegetable broth for vegan/vegetarian)
  • 2 shakes of cayenne pepper
  • 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese. shredded (or use non-dairy Daiya cheddar shreds for vegan or dairy free)
  • 2-3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
  • sea salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • Finely chop 2 heads of broccoli, including stems. In a large pot, combine the rice milk and broccoli, then bring to a simmer until broccoli is tender (mine took about 7 minutes).2. In a skillet, saute the onions with butter/oil/Earth Balance. Once the onions are translucent, sprinkle the flour in the skillet and stir with a wooden spoon until the flour has evenly coated the onions.
  • Add the broth slowly and mix until all lumps of flour are broken down. (For a thicker soup, use 2 cups and for a thinner soup use 3 cups of broth)
  • Add the onion-broth mixture to the broccoli-milk mixture in the large pot. Blend or puree part of all of the soup to your desired texture (I used a stick blender and partial blended the soup to maintain some texture). Then add the shredded cheese, cayenne pepper and nutritional yeast and season with salt and pepper. Stir until cheese is melted and completely incorporated. Serve immediately, enjoy!