Cheezy Hash Brown Broccoli Soup
Quick and delicious soup made with dehydrated potato shreds!
Growing up, we always had packages of dehydrated shredded hash browns in our cupboard, emergency supplies, and camping food cache. Dad loved making hash browns, especially in a cast iron pan over a campfire, and found these made the best ones. But besides making hash browns, mom used them to make an amazing soup with broccoli and cheese. I’ve been through her entire recipe box and haven’t found that recipe, so I think it may have been a recipe that used to be on the side of the package. But I’ve been hungry for this, especially since we’ve been home-bound with the COVID stay-at-home orders and using our pantry stash. So I recreated a plant-based version of my childhood food memory!
Small carton of dehydrated potato shreds.
You can still buy dehydrated shredded hash browns today. Most grocery stores sell them in little milk-carton-like containers. You can also find them in big cartons and cans from emergency supply companies or loose in bulk bins. You can also easily dehydrate your own potato shreds, making them completely zero waste!
Note, you may have noticed that the “expiration date” for the shreds in the above photo is from 2018 and it’s 2020. I’ve stored and used dehydrated potato shreds for years and have never had any issues with quality, even using them years after the manufacturer’s use by date. It’s completely up to you. You can learn more about this from my previous blog post on food expiration dates, which explains why I’m ok with using many things well past the expiration date.
If you don’t have dehydrated potato shreds, that’s ok. You can use frozen hash brown shreds, or cubes, or even shredded fresh potatoes.
The Soup
The key to this dairy-free cheesy recipe is my Queso! Not only does it make it whole food, plant-based, you don’t have the risk of the soup curdling, as could happen when using dairy cheese. And there’s significantly less saturated fat than in dairy queso, so much healthier for you!
Make the Queso sauce and set aside.
Mmmm….queso!
Saute onions in a little broth or water until they are translucent. Add minced garlic and saute 30 seconds more.
Add vegetable stock (vegetable scrap stock is perfect for this!) and dehydrated potato shreds (or frozen or fresh potato shreds). Bring to a boil and then simmer 15 minutes (half this time for frozen or fresh potatoes).
Simmering potato shreds. Note, I had a little leftover braised leeks that I added, which you can see in the broth.
Add chopped broccoli. You can use fresh or frozen. Use the entire broccoli, including stems and leaves!
Beautiful broccoli, including stems and leaves!
Cook until broccoli is tender.
Pour in the Queso! Mmmmm!
Stir in the queso you made earlier, Worcestershire sauce, and adjust seasonings as desired.
If you’d like the soup a little thicker, which we do, dip out 2 cups of the soup and blend until smooth. This is a great way to get all that cheezy Queso out of your Vitamix container! Pour the blended soup back into your pot and stir to combine. Serve hot!
This soup freezes great too!
Dish yourself up a big steamy bowl of this eazy, cheezy soup!
So give it a try. It’s a souper fast meal from pantry and freezer supplies.
Cheezy Hash Brown Broccoli Soup
Ingredients
Trimazing! Queso (recipe also here)
- 1/2 cup raw cashews or rolled oats for a lower fat and nut-free version
- 1 cup vegetable stock
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 oz tomato paste
- 1 clove garlic
Soup
- 1 large onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 8 cups vegetable stock
- 12.5 ounce dehydrated hash brown shreds or 6 cups frozen or fresh shredded potatoes
- 8 cups chopped broccoli fresh or frozen
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce plant-based, omit for soy-free
Instructions
Make Trimazing! Queso
- Add all Queso ingredients into a blender. Bring to high speed until smooth.
- If you have a high-speed blender, like a Vitamix, just keep the blender running on high until the sauce gets steamy and thick, about 5 minutes. If using a regular blender, pour blended mixture into a saucepan, bring to a boil, and simmer until thick.
- Set prepared Queso aside.
Soup
- Heat a large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onions and saute until they turn translucent, adding a little bit of vegetable stock or water if they start to stick. Add garlic and cook another 30 seconds.
- Add vegetable stock. Add dehydrated hash browns and stir. Bring to a boil and simmer 15 minutes (boil 7 minutes if using frozen or fresh hash browns).
- Add broccoli, stir, cover and cook 7 minutes until broccoli is tender.
- Add Queso and stir. Add salt and pepper for seasoning, if needed, and Worcestershire sauce.
- If you'd like the soup a little thicker, remove 2 cups, blend until smooth, and return to soup.
- Remove from heat and serve.
Notes
Do you like this post? Please share....
If you liked this post, you might like one of these:
Tags:
[Trī-māz-ing]
Cindy wants you to be Trimazing—three times better than amazing! After improving her health and fitness through plant-based nutrition, losing 60 pounds and becoming an adult-onset athlete, she retired from her 20-year firefighting career to help people just like you. She works with people and organizations so they can reach their health and wellness goals.
Cindy Thompson is a national board-certified Health and Wellness Coach, Lifestyle Medicine Coach, Master Vegan Lifestyle Coach and Educator, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, Behavior Change Specialist, and Fit2Thrive Firefighter Peer Fitness Trainer. She is a Food for Life Instructor with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Rouxbe Plant-Based Professional, and Harvard Medical School Culinary Coach, teaching people how to prepare delicious, satisfying, and health-promoting meals.
She provides health and lifestyle coaching at Trimazing! Health & Lifestyle Coaching. Cindy can be reached at info@trimazing.com.
Subscribe to the Trimazing Blog
Receive occasional blog posts in your email inbox.
Subscribe to the Trimazing Blog
Receive occasional blog posts in your email inbox.