Non Dairy Cheddar Vegetarian Winter Vegetable Soup [I Like To Share Recipes]

The night before you start the soup:

Preheat oven to 350F and on a non stick baking, bake 10-12 miniature turnips, (these are about as big as a large baby pearl onion),about 50 minutes, covered tightly with foil with about 1/2 cup of water poured into the pan.

When they are done, set them aside to cool on a small plate, and, using the same baking sheet, char 1 medium large sweet red pepper for about 45 minutes, turning every 15 minutes.

Remove to a plate to cool. Leave the pepper and the miniature turnips in the fridge overnight, and when the turnips are cool you can easily chop off the top and the tail and then the outer skin of the turnips peels easily. Peel the red pepper so that there are no charred or hard bits.

Ingredients:

2 large onions, chopped
10-12 miniature turnips, peeled, baked, and cut into 1/8ths
1 medium sweet red pepper, out skin charred and removed, chopped fine.
1 heaping cup of chopped raw broccoli
1 heaping cup of chopped cauliflower
1/4 cup avocado oil or olive oil
1/2 cup margarine or butter if you are not vegan.
1/2 cup flour, heaping
2 quarts coconut milk
1/2 quart vegetable broth
1 package Daiya Non Dairy Cheddar Cheese substitute slices.
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

In a frying pan with a cover, add oil, chopped onions, broccoli and cauliflower. Saute over low heat, covered, until the veggies appear to be tender...usually about 20 minutes. Set aside.

In a 5 quart dutch oven or soup pot, melt margarine or butter over low heat in the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat, add flour, salt and pepper, (I went very light with the pepper, about 5 turns of the grinder, and only added about 1/2 tsp of salt).

Whisk the margarine or butter and the flour, salt and pepper to create a roux. Gradually whisk in the Vegetable broth until the roux is more like a thick liquid, and then add in the coconut milk, also gradually, and whisk until there is no more thick roux on the bottom of the pan.

Return to heat, turn heat to medium, and stand over the broth until it just barely begins to bubble and thicken. Cut the cheese slices quickly into quarters, and just dump them in along with all of the veggies, give it all a good stir and reduce heat to low. Cover the pot and simmer for about 20 minutes additional, till cheese is melted and contents are hot.

Enjoy! Serves about 8.