This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I can earn a small commission from items you purchase (at no cost to you).
Some nights, dinner comes out of nowhere and I’m like, “Oops… guess I should feed people.” In those moments, fast and filling sounds amazing—like hitting the drive-thru. But I also want to feel good, sleep well, and keep fitting into my favorite jeans. That’s why I love this 25-minute vegan broccoli soup—it totally saves the day—and its dairy-free!
What is Vegan Broccoli Soup?
Vegan broccoli soup is a creamy, dairy-free comfort made with simple plant-based ingredients. Potatoes blend into a silky base, while broccoli, carrots, onion, and garlic add flavor and nutrients. Nutritional yeast and pureed potatoes replace cream and cheese, creating a wholesome, satisfying soup—smooth or chunky.
Table of contents
Serving Suggestions
This soup recipe is hearty enough to eat as a meal on it’s own, but delish with warm, crusty bread or a slice of toasted sourdough for dipping into the creamy goodness. Here’s a few more ways to bulk it up:
- For a heartier meal, serve it alongside a veggie wrap, roasted chickpeas, or baked potato wedges.
- If you want a lighter side dish, pair it with a side of skillet green beans or a chopped green salad topped with avocado and seeds for extra crunch.
Ingredients You’ll Need
To make a broccoli soup this amazing without dairy, you’ll need a few veggies, some pantry staples, and a couple of plant-based boosters. Together, they’ll transform this into the ultimate cozy, nourishing, and totally satisfying broccoli soup recipe in minutes!
- Mirepoix (onion, carrots, celery)
- Gold potatoes
- Broccoli
- Spinach
- Vegetable stock
- Nutritional yeast
- Crispy Toppings: nuts + seeds
How to Make Vegan Broccoli Soup
Heat avocado oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, and celery, then sauté for 5 minutes until softened. Stir in the garlic and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant.
Add potatoes, broccoli, and vegetable stock.
Bring to a gentle simmer, cover, reduce heat, and cook for 15 minutes or until potatoes are very tender.
Remove half of the chunky vegetables and set them aside in a bowl. Stir the spinach into the pot and let it wilt until softened.
Blend the remaining soup with an immersion blender on low until everything is somewhat combined.
Increase immersion blender speed to high until smooth and creamy texture, then return the reserved vegetables to the pot.
Stir in nutritional yeast, salt, and black pepper, adjusting to taste.
Ladle into bowls and garnish with a dollop of vegan sour cream, seeds, and extra broccoli florets, if desired.
Recipe Tips
Try swapping the potatoes for 2 cups raw cashews, soaked and blended with 1/2 cup water. This will create a creamy soup that’s still dairy-free and even higher in protein.
Swap spinach for kale, parsley, Swiss chard, or basil for additional flavor profiles.
Drizzle olive oil on top right before serving for an elevated silky texture. You’ll be wowed!
If you make this vegan broccoli soup recipe, I’d love to hear how it turned out in the comment box below. Your feedback helps me and all the readers in this community. And if you’re interested in more plant-based recipes (and exclusive content), sign up for my weekly recipe newsletter.
Creamy Vegan Broccoli Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon avocado oil
- ½ yellow onion diced
- 1 carrot diced
- 1 celery rib diced
- 4 garlic clove minced
- 3 gold potatoes cubed
- 4 cups broccoli florets frozen
- 6 cups vegetable stock
- 2 cups spinach
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt, unrefined
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper, ground ground
Toppings
- 2 tablespoon raw sunflower seeds
- 2 tablespoon sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoon raw pepitas
- 2 tablespoon hemp hearts
- ½ cup dairy-free sour cream optional
Instructions
- Heat the avocado oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrot, and celery, and sauté for about 5 minutes, or until softened. Stir in the garlic and cook for an additional 30 seconds, until fragrant.
- Add the potatoes, broccoli, and vegetable stock. Bring to a gentle simmer, then cover and reduce the heat. Cook for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are very tender.
- Remove about half of the soup’s chunky vegetables and set aside in a bowl. Add the spinach to the pot, then blend the remaining soup with an immersion blender until smooth and creamy.
- Return the reserved vegetables to the pot and stir in the nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper. Adjust seasoning to taste.
- Ladle the soup into bowls. Swirl with vegan sour cream and garnish with seeds and extra broccoli florets, if desired.
Video
Helpful Tools
Notes
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review for a chance to win signed copies of my cookbooks!Common Questions
Yes! Fresh broccoli works perfectly in broccoli potato soup. Just chop it into small florets so they cook evenly and soften in about the same time as the potatoes.
The potatoes already create a creamy base, but if you want even more richness in your broccoli potato soup, blend in cashew cream, a splash of oat milk, or a little full-fat coconut milk.
Absolutely! Broccoli potato soup holds up great in the freezer for up to 3 months. Store in freezer-safe containers, thaw overnight in the fridge, and reheat gently on the stove.
This soup will stay fresh for about 4 days in the refrigerator when stored in an airtight container—perfect for meal prep or easy leftovers.
Nutritional yeast adds a cheesy, nutty flavor to broccoli potato soup. If you don’t have it, try vegan parmesan or a squeeze of lemon juice to brighten the flavors.
If you’d like a heartier broccoli potato soup, stir in cooked lentils, white beans, or rice. These boost the plant-based protein and fiber, helping you feel satisfied longer.
I think I may be in the minority – but I adore broccoli. Next time I would probably double the amount of broccoli – I had a hard time tasting it.
The texture was great, and the creaminess was excellent as well, it just needs MOR BROC! 🙂
I made this in the instant pot – after sautéing the veggies at the start (at home a few days ago), I threw those in the instant pot and threw the rest of the ingredients in.
Loved the broccoli soup. I like that you still have veges to chew by pulling out some prior to blending. I will make this one again.
Oh I love the green! This soup was like spring in winter, or a four leaf clover surprise. My hubby loved it too! The reason it’s a 4, not 5, was I had trouble with the timing. The broccoli was ready and the potatoes were still crunchy. I suspect this was a error on my part – yet it did detract from the soup. I will definitely make it again – soon- and explore my potato/broccoli timing issue. In the meantime, I encourage you to go for it. The result is definitely delicious!
I love broccoli cheddar soup so I was very excited to see a broccoli soup on the challenge!! It is so delicious and nutritional yeast adds that cheesy flavor!! So good! Thank you!
This is a very flavorful and satisfying soup. I like the combination of half the vegetables turned into a silky smooth cream, and the rest kept intact for something to chew. The seed topping gave great crunch.
The recipe says to cook the potatoes and broccoli together until the potatoes are soft; but I waited to add the broccoli until the last few minutes, to retain some of the bright green.
Love this soup so easy to make I added cashews for creaminess topped with a dollop of vegan sour cream and pepitas. Very hearty and delicious.
I don’t eat nutritional yeast or store-bought sour cream, and I am trying to stay oil free, so I made several modifications to this recipe. I sauteed the mirepoix in a non-stick skillet with a little bit of water to prevent sticking and deglaze. I left out the nooch and used lemon juice, as suggested. It was good, but I may experiment with a few other modifications next time. I really appreciate the hints and answers to common question as part of this recipe.
This is my first attempt at making broccoli soup. It was interesting but not my favorite of the five. It could be because I am use to broccoli and cheddar soup. I did add Greek Yogurt after I put it in a bowl and that helped. It has been good experimenting making soups. I collected lots of good tips.
Came together so fast, we had it for lunch today! I love that I feel full but have so much energy to conquer the afternoon activities!
By far my favorite soup in this challenge. I mostly followed the recipe. I did add bell pepper, about the same amount as the celery or carrots. I used fresh broccoli, sauteing the chopped stems with the other veggies and adding the flowerets about 5 minutes after the potato. I used russet because I had some but I think I was light on my conversion. Don’t get gold potatos often so not familiar with their size. (Pet peeve: It would be helpful if ALL recipe writers gave an approx. amount along with vague ones. It particularly gets to me with garlic cloves. I’ve never met a garlic with all similiar size cloves.) Don’t have nutritional yeast and didn’t want to buy for one dish so just skipped. Forgot the toppings, but didn’t miss. I did add the cashews when blending.
Taste was delicious and I could have eaten as is, but being me I added a little Velveeta. Not as much as I use in my normal broccoli soup, but just enough to make me happier. I had forgotten how much I like broccoli cheese soup. My husband currently doesn’t like broccoli so we usually do cauliflower which also works well. Being the last soup of the challenge I won’t bother freezing like I did the other leftovers, but we eat tomorrow or Sunday.
Thanks for the challenge. It’s gotten me back on track for eating more veggies and reminded me that I do like soups other then gumbo.
My least favorite of the 5 soups in the challenge. Might be because I LOVE broccoli cheddar and was hoping this could replace my current version.
I will try it again but to add more flavor I will roast the vegetables first. First time using nutritional yeast and I did like the flavor it added. Thank you Jen for introducing new ways to make healthy soups!
Went out halfway thru the week, love broccoli. My family has decided to take a break from soups, however, I’ll continue to make these and look for more ideas. Thank you.
This one is my favorite. I have a broccoli and cauliflower soup I make, but I like this one even more. I may try to add caulifower the next time I make this. I love this soup can be made completely plant based. I added the hemp hearts to the whole soup rather than as a garnishment. I have really enjoyed this challenging and completing all of the recipes. I have enough soup to last almost to Thanksgiving even after sharing pints with others! I love the fact that I now have so many already prepared meals which are healthy to boot!!
Great recipe. I had a bowl for dinner last night and eating some as I write this review for lunch. I really liked the incorporation of the broccoli and spinach. I use nutritional flakes quite often, and thought it really added to this recipe.
I just had this for lunch! YUM! Used a bit of cashew cream on top! Great flavor.. The nutritional yeast makes it almost taste like broccoli cheese soup!
Soup for lunch on a cold day – high of 55F here.
I loved it just as written! We added sprouted pepitas and an extra sprinkle of nooch on top. Winner, winner, broccoli dinner, with a side of sautéed garlic green beans.