This recipe is sponsored by Almond Breeze.

Truly though, it is the best. Creamy, cheesy-like without cheese, velvety and rich, and just all-around delicious. Kind of like a soup that gives you a hug for lunch, when it is, in fact, A SALAD in disguise!

No? Too awkward?

In addition to being creamy and velvety and absolutely gorgeous in texture, it is super nutritious, hence the detox title. Just pause to think of the rainbow of veggies in here: sauteed onions, celery, carrots, potato, and broccoli simmered with a little bit of vegetable broth and almondmilk, pureed to smooth cheesy-like perfection. That is my kind of salad. Soup. Whatever.

Those olive oil pan fried croutons don’t hurt the cause, either. I mean, if your detox doesn’t include fried bread, who are you really?

Watch how to make our Detox Broccoli Cheese Soup (1 min):

Detox-ing isn’t really a verb in my life, but I *do* try to do some clean-eating resets after particularly fun food weekends. Wink wink.

Bjork and I try to generally eat healthy, real foods and not totally overdo it – say, 5 out of 7 days of the week? Which, when I write it out, doesn’t seem like it should be that hard, but it translates to needing food prepped and ready to go which is something that, as a food blogger, I’m strangely not very good at. I’d like to say it’s just because I’m very busy working so hard that I don’t have time to plan and prep for our “normal” healthy food, but I think there’s also that weird phenomenon of I-do-this-for-work-so-I-want-to-go-out-for-dinner kind of thing going on. Pizza tonight? Oh, wait – what about sushi? Crunchy rolls? Please? The point I’m making here: a) I have classy taste in sushi. and b) meal prep can be a challenge for me.

You know what’s really great, though? It’s soup season. ALMOST. We’re sitting right on the edge of it. And soup season, for me, is doable. I can make soup once a week – I enjoy it, actually – and that translates beautifully to “meal prep” for the week because soups are transportable, reheatable, and can easily be made healthy – with good ingredients, spices, whole foods, and lots of vegetables.

You know that feeling when it’s 10am and you have been at work for one hour and you remember that in two hours you get to eat lunch AND YOUR LUNCH IS BOSS?

That is this soup.

In addition to broccoli as the star, obvi, we’ve got a whole lotta Almond Breeze keeping this creamy and smooth for us while also staying dairy free. I am not dairy free, but when I do a healthy eating reset, or my own version of a detox, I like to press pause on dairy for a few days.

Enter: creamy, unsweetened, original nutty almondmilk.

It’s perfect in non-dairy savory dishes like this red pepper pasta and this summer corn chowder that is still the object of my dreams.

A word about a newish ingredient we have on the loose in this soup: nutritional yeast. Have you heard of it?

It’s a deactivated yeast that is sold at health food stores. It looks like flakes. Borderline like fish food. Wait! Mom, don’t hang up.

It is yellow in color and it’s known for having a cheesy, creamy, nutty flavor to it, which makes it the perfect complement to our already-nutty Almond Breeze and also gives us a boost of cheese flavor without needing dairy-cheese. It’s got lots of vitamins and stuff (google) and it is YUM CITY but if you can’t find it, not a big deal. I made this soup at home the other night without nutritional yeast and it was still creamy and luscious and cheesy in the best non-cheesy possible way.

Hey you over there, wearing the cozy sweater even though it’s slightly too warm for that in August – yes, you! I made this one for you. Let’s embrace the soup season!

And this soup in return will love you back with all its veggie, nutritious, almost-cheesy goodness. ❤️

The Best Detox Broccoli Cheese Soup

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★★★★★
4.9 from 77 reviews

• Author: Lindsay
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 5 servings (2-ish cups each)

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Description

This creamy, “cheesy”, detox broccoli cheese soup has silky smooth texture and classic broccoli cheese flavor with exactly zero ingredients out of a can. Real food meets comfort food.

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Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 an onion, chopped
• 1-2 stalks celery, chopped
• 4-5 large carrots, chopped
• 1 large potato, peeled and chopped
• 2-3 cups broccoli florets, in large pieces for easy removal
• 2-3 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups Almond Breeze Original Almondmilk
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast – optional, see notes
• 1 1/2 – 2 teaspoons sea salt
• croutons – see notes

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Instructions

1. Make Soup Base: Heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the mirepoix, garlic, and potatoes. Saute until softened, about 10 minutes.
2. Add Broccoli: Add broccoli, vegetable broth, and almond milk. Simmer until bubbly and broccoli is bright green, about 5 minutes.
3. Blend Blend Blend: Using tongs, pull out most of the broccoli pieces and set aside. Blend the soup, sans broccoli, to a suuuper creamy, cheesy-looking consistency, and then add the broccoli and just pulse a few times to mix it in. This will likely need to be done in batches. Return to pot; stir in nutritional yeast and salt. Taste and adjust and serve!

Notes

HERE’S HOW TO MAKE THE MOST AMAZING CROUTONS: Heat 1/4 cup olive oil (more as needed) in a skillet over medium high heat. Add a clove of smashed garlic and let it hang out (WITHOUT browning) for a few minutes. Remove garlic. Add cubed bread (about 6 thick slices cut into chunks) and toss around in the pan until golden brown and chewy/crispy. Drain on paper towels. Season with salt.

FYI, I’ve also casually thrown a spoonful of pesto in there for good measure – it was Level 900 Awesome. Just saying.

If the blended soup looks too thick for you, just add an additional 1/2 cup or so of liquid.

Nutritional yeast is not necessary for texture, but it adds a yummy, salty, cheesy flavor and some extra vitamins, too.

Nutrition doesn’t include croutons.

1713.3 g1100.7 mg10.7 g15.9 g4.9 g0 mg

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And then comes the part where I post a salad recipe using a bagged salad mix. Modern times have given us modern salad mixes, and I could not be more happy about it.

Friends, meet my Cheater’s Power Salad.

First, let me give you the perks of dis lil power salad.

• Kale.
• Cilantro.
• Green onion.
• Cabbage.
• Shredded chicken (or your choice of protein).
• Black beans.
• Avocado.
• Tortilla strips and crispy onions.
• BBQ ranch dressing.

UM, YAH. Are you all over this or what? Because I AM ALL OVER THIS.

I’ve been having this salad for lunch, like, all of the days of the week. I tell everyone about it. I love talking to people about what they eat in real life, and spoiler: 99% of the time, what people tell me they eat in real life is so simple – grilled chicken, pastas, five ingredient recipes, crockpot soups, tacos and burritos and fried eggs and roasted veggies – that it always brings me back down from the world of glamourous-nutso-instagrammers who are trying to tell us that cordyceps are (or is? is it plural?) normal, and doesn’t everyone have that in their pantry? fridge? what do you even keep cordyceps in? don’t even get me started on ashwagandha.

You know I am passionate about good food, but I am BIG TIME PASSIONATE about good food that people (including myself) will actually make and eat.

So hi, Cheater’s Power Salad! Hello. Get right up in there.

Okay. Now that we’ve established the deliciousness of this crunchy, nutritious, totally versatile power salad, let me give you the other perks.

• Affordable.
• Easy to shop for.
• Easy to make throughout the week.
• Zero prep time. Or maybe, like, five minutes. YOU CAN DO THIS.
• No leftover salad ingredients hanging out in your fridge for six months afterwards. I’m looking at you, half-used head of red cabbage.

THANK YOU SALAD MIX. What is my life.

But salad mix has a few buddies that are very necessary for taking this salad to the blog-worthy level.

Just let a simple can of black beans, and a fresh, buttery avocado do their thing, okay? It’s not a huge party. We don’t have to get complicated here.

And like that, a star is born.

A kale, cabbage, cilantro, green onion, black bean, avocado, chicken if you want (or maybe some quinoa), tortilla strip, crispy onion, BBQ ranch, full-blown STAR. God bless the simple power lunches of this world.

Cheater’s Power Salad

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★★★★★
4.9 from 11 reviews

• Author: Lindsay
• Yield: 2-4

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Ingredients

• 1 bag southwestern salad mix – Dole Chopped BBQ Ranch Salad Kit is THE BEST. Hands down.
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 avocado, cubed
• shredded chicken, quinoa, or other protein of choice

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Instructions

1. Cook the chicken (or other protein). I like shredded chicken, so I usually opt for cooking one pound of chicken breasts in the Instant Pot (15 minutes) or slow cooker (3-4 hours) with a jar of salsa or some taco seasoning.
2. Toss your salad ingredients together. YUM YUM YUM.

Notes

The salad mix I use has lots of cabbage, carrots, kale, cilantro, green onions, as well as crispy onions, tortilla strips, and BBQ Ranch dressing. A good salad mix (like this one) is very important for making this cheater’s salad worth your while. This is not an iceberg lettuce situation. It is fresh, nutritious veggies pre-chopped with some yummy extras to boot. Well done, Dole.

Chicken can be hot or cold – I’ve enjoyed it both ways in this salad! You can easily sub a different protein if you’re not into chicken. Nuts, sofritas tofu, or even just some cooked quinoa would be equally as delicious.

I don’t recommend making this all at once for one person – I just cook all of the chicken, keep it in the fridge, and then assemble salads throughout the week as I’m ready to eat them.

4167.1 g725 mg20.4 g36.5 g22.9 g46.4 mg

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