Hello, my myriad blog readers! You, and you, and you…all
three of you! I apologize for my long absence. It’s been a big time of
transition in my life, and after getting married, going on my honeymoon, and
adjusting to step-mothering, I am now on a quest to make the perfect vegan
cheese sauce—my requirements are simple: no Frankencheese (or else I’m not
really making it, am I?), and my 4 year-old stepson must approve (this will be
the hard part!).
Most vegan “cheese” pastas and soups I’ve found rely heavily
on spices like concentrated garlic and horseradish-y mustard powder—which is
yummy in its own right, and fine and dandy for the grown-up palate. But when it
comes to just a real, solid cheese FLAVOR? These strong seasonings are only
going to remind you that you’re not really eating cheese. Granted, the flavor
of nutritional yeast, though delicious, is very distinctive. I try to think of
it as its own kind of cheese, and that helps. :)
So I’ve been experimenting, and in the name of research, I
tasted a teeny-tiny corner of real cheddar cheese—in order to really focus on
the flavor and try to figure out what I could possibly use to imitate it. The two flavors that really stand out are:
really salty, obviously, but also: clearly fermented.
This part is important! And often overlooked in vegan cheese experiments. So
after a few days of thought, it occurred to me that maybe very dry white wine
would be the ticket. I grabbed my bottle of cheap white cooking wine and tasted
it. Salty and fermented. Exactly right.
So now instead of garlic powder, I use white cooking wine,
and instead of mustard powder, I use plain sharp, tart yellow mustard (think
French’s; though I buy Organic Tree of Life). I also tend to slightly increase the
measurement of nutritional yeast, and never skimp on the salt. I’m not ready to
declare it perfect just yet, though the cheese base for this soup came pretty
dang close. The 4 year-old judge—who does not usually warm immediately to new foods—declared
he did not like it, but ate it without whining when he had to in order to get
more bread, so it may be on its way to success.
I may try increasing the mustard and wine—the measurements I
give here are approximate, since I was silly and didn’t really measure mine as
I made it. If it helps, I pulled out the stirring spatula and ran two thick
lines of mustard across the bottom. I’m guessing that equaled about a
teaspoon. Credit where credit is due: I tweaked the recipe from Novel Eats, another great vegan blog (there are so many!). Please click and give her some traffic.
Vegan Broccoli Cheese Soup
- 3 or 4 small heads broccoli, chopped (dice the stem bits you cut off as you go)
- 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 heaping cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unbleached flour (I used Bob’s All-Purpose Gluten-Free and it worked dandy.)
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon white cooking wine
- 1 teaspoon yellow mustard (wet, not powdered)
- 8 cups warm water
- 5 tablespoons vegan butter (I always use organic Earth Balance)
Prepare your broccoli and onion,
then steam it for about 15 minutes. It will not have enough time to cook in the
soup itself, so it needs to be cooked separately. Just be sure to not
over-steam it.
In a large soup pot (which will
need to be at least 3 or 4 quarts), mix all of your dry ingredients together,
then whisk in the water until the dry and the wet have been well mixed. Add in
the cooking wine and mustard. Add the butter and allow it to melt as the soup
cooks.
Turn on the heat to about medium
high and stir constantly. It will take several minutes to thicken, but if you
do not stir the soup it will burn on the bottom and not thicken evenly. (I used
a grated metal spatula for this—it helped scrape the bottom of the pot most
effectively, and also sifted the dry chunks.)
Make sure to stir constantly! As
it thickens, taste and adjust seasoning—particularly white wine and mustard.
Add a dash of garlic powder, agave or lemon juice if you think it is too
bland/sharp/salty. I thought mine turned out just about perfect, but of course,
tastes vary. :)
As soon as the soup thickens up
to a consistency that you like, take the soup off the heat and stir in the
steamed broccoli and onion. Next time I make it I may stir in some cooked rice
for a heartier meal. You can serve immediately, or you can store it and serve it
later.
