Soup's On

I've been living on a plant based diet for almost six months. At first, it was a temporary thing to lose a few pounds. I felt better almost immediately. I dropped a few pounds as I expected, because I was eating a lot more veggies, and less overly processed foods, but that wasn't the biggest surprise. My daily headaches where gone. My unexplainable morning sickness (with no pregnancy) that I've had every morning since every morning for over a year when I first woke up, was gone. After three weeks I decided to have a non vegan meal, and the next morning, it all came back. I was done.

I dropped a few more pounds over the summer. Not a huge amount because I still eat a lot, even if it is healthy food. In the beginning it was kind of a challenge to find vegan food, but now it was become pretty fun to take something that is usually made with animal products, and make it with plants.

There are a lot of misconceptions about Vegan or plant based diets that I would love to address. I get asked a lot of questions. Here are my top five:

1. How do you get protein?

The same way cows, or rabbits, or gorillas, or any other herbivore does. PLANTS! Protein is there. Its not hard to find once you start looking for it.

2. Do you miss meat/dairy/eggs?

Maybe at first, but honestly I feel like I can now see them for what they really are... And it's kinda gross. Kind of the way we might look at some strange seeming food from another culture and wonder how they eat it. Sure you could get used to it, but... No thanks.

3. What about calcium (or some other nutrient)?

Refer to question 1.

4. Ok, but vitamin B12 isn't in plants... So what about that?

Ok, you got me there. There is no good plant based source of B-12. It is actually found in the bacterial in soil. Thats where animals get it (Unless they are never let outside, the they are supplemented). In a more natural, less sanitized world, we would get it from dirt, or leftover dirt on our produce. When I get organic, locally grown produce from good sources, I don't wash it. when I get veggies from my grandpa's garden, I don't was thm. If I forage for wild growing food, I don't wash it. I also take a supplement, just in case.

5. Are your husband and kids vegan too?

No. My husband is an omnivore. My kids are (mostly) vegetarian by their own choice. I do try to limit the dairy (as well as sugar, GMOs, processed junk), and they do eat eggs.

Feel free to leave any other questions in the comments and I will try to answer them the best I can.

Now that I have explained all that, I will get back to what this post was actually going to be about, originally. I am nothing if not good at getting sidetracked.

I have been cooking from scratch a lot more in the past few months. I get a real kick out of making plant based recipes that no one would know were plant based. If four out of the five people in my family (or six out of seven if you count my parents) love it, it's a win... I think most families have the one kid who is a picky eater. In our house it's the middle one. Her vote doesn't count a whole lot because she would literally live on PB&J if I let her.

I am now about to share with you, the most epic, the most delicious, the most amazing soup I have ever eaten. Brace yourself.

Vegan Cheesy Broccoli Potato Soup.

Pretty sure I can hear angels singing...

I developed this recipe after going over several, taking what I liked from each one, and adding my own twist. It's soooooo good.

Ingredients:

1 large onion

1 clove of garlic

1 carton of veggie broth

1 head of cauliflower (or bag of frozen)

5 cups chopped celery

5 cups sliced potatoes

1 Tbs sea salt

2 Tbs curry powder

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

2 cups of almond milk (this is kinda optional, but make it creamier)

1 head of broccoli (or bag of frozen)

5 more cups of diced potatoes

I forgot to picture the celery... Sorry... I'm sure you know what celery looks like.
Not everything here is organic, but we are working toward it.

I literally start crying in excitement, when copping the opinions for this recipe.

Brown up the onions and garlic in a little bit of the veggie broth.

Add in the cauliflower and veggie broth and boil until soft.

These awesome crinkle cut knives are not sharp at all and great for kids.

Add in the celery and potatoes and cook through.

Ok now this next part is a time saving tip. It does dirty another pot, but that is worth it to me when kids are SSSTTTAAARRRVVVIIINNNGGG.

While the big pot is cooking, go ahead and cook up the broccoli and diced potatoes and drain them. You could wait and add them in at the end, but that will take an extra 20 minutes or so.

Ok, back to pot one...

Once everything is nice and soft, go ahead and add your salt, curry, yeast, and almond milk.

Then... This is interesting part...

Remove from heat, make sure it is all cool enough not to burn you, then dump it in a blender and blend until smooth.

*I have a small blinder and had to do it in batches, pouring the blended soup into a large mixing bowl until the pot was empty.*

Then back into the pot it goes.

Add the (already cooked and drained) broccoli and potatoes, stir in, and reheat. 

Tada!

Salt and/or pepper to taste.

You're welcome!