Saturday night my husband and I went out to a nice local restaurant, which is known for its seafood, to celebrate Valentine’s Day. I already knew I was going to stray from my vegan diet for the night. I love seafood and I told myself that every once in a while it is perfectly okay to fall off the diet, especially for special occasions like celebrating love LOL!

I ended up choosing a shrimp and scallops dish with sautéed veggies, mashed potatoes and a creamy potato dill soup. I had never had this kind of soup and was pretty excited to try it as I recently discovered how much I actually love dill. It’s become somewhat of an obsession and if you haven’t tried Dill and Black Pepper Popcorn, hit me up and I will hook you up!! I was nervous about indulging in this soup because I wasn’t sure how my stomach would handle the cream in the soup and the milk and butter in the potatoes. When my soup came I dug right in. OH MY! It was so delicious, I was in heaven and I am ecstatic to say that I had zero tummy problems the next day!!! This vegan diet is doing wonders for me!

I knew right away that I HAD to learn how to make this at home, but a vegan version. A day or two later I grabbed the almond milk soup base from my pantry to see how I could use it. I ended up grabbing it two weeks ago from the grocery store in the off-chance I might need or want it for a new recipe. Low and behold, right there on the carton is a recipe for creamy potato soup! I also decided to use my handy-dandy tool, Pinterest to see how adding a dill component would work. I didn’t look too long though, instead I just looked through my cabinets and came up with something I thought might work. Enter……my Young Living Dill Vitality essential oil. *insert happy dance here*

Now here is the part where I wanted to say how amazing my soup was and how jazzed I felt to have recreated such a yummy dish. I really wanted to do that. But I’m not going to and this is why…I’m not a chef. Nor am I a food blogger or recipe developer. I’m not even a veteran vegan. I am just an okay home cook trying out a vegan diet to improve health and wellness and who really enjoys cooking meals for my family, when they actually eat them, and who loves the satisfaction of making things from scratch. Not only that, but I don’t want to mislead you or be fake. I had a real life experience and I want to share that not some glorified version of what happened in hopes you will follow me. I still hope you’ll love what I’ve provided you, but I what I really hope is that you’ll appreciate the honesty and maybe even help me out with some tips to make my dream soup even dreamier!!

With that said, my soup came out okay. Not amazing, but okay. Even though I simmered the potatoes for the time suggested, they weren’t cooked all the way through and didn’t mash all the way. I didn’t mind them not being completely mashed because I like a chunkier soup but it ended up being a thinner soup than I was anticipating and I think that’s why. I did try to thicken it up with some cornstarch and it helped a little but still not creamy like I was wanting. As far as spices and herbs, the dill was PERFECT in my opinion. However, I had too much garlic and it made the soup a little darker and heavier than I had anticipated. I didn’t think my garlic press was working so I dumped some garlic powder in. For whatever reason I retried the press AFTER I already dumped in garlic powder and it worked so…I added the minced garlic in as well. I should have left it out but I always hear, “you can never have too much garlic”. Apparently that isn’t always true. My soup could have had a lighter, brighter taste with a thicker, creamier texture but I am so happy I experimented with it!

I want to touch on Dill Vitality essential oil from Young Living. I ordered it for a popcorn recipe and I was somewhat skeptical about it but it was easy enough to make so I went for it. From the moment I opened the bottle I was hooked. Just smelling it makes me happy!! To my surprise Dill Vitality essential oil has more uses than just being used for recipes. It can help aid in digestion and it can also help with weight management. If you rub some on your wrists, or simply smell it straight from the bottle like I do, it can help curb those cravings that get in the way of a healthy diet!

Honestly, I didn’t do anything special, aside from adding the Dill Vitality oil and some dried dill, I just followed the recipe on the almond milk soup base box. I did use a vegan butter rather than a cow’s milk butter to make it vegan. As far as the Dill, I added 2 drops of oil and about a half of a tablespoon of dried dill right after I added the vegetable broth and let it simmer. Once that was done, I added the soup base and another drop of dill vitality oil. At the very end I used some dried dill for garnish. I paired the soup with a fresh garden salad and fresh homemade drop biscuits. The meal was almost fully vegan, I had to use cow’s milk butter in the biscuits because I didn’t have enough of my vegan butter…wah waaaah.

 

And now what you’ve been waiting for…the recipe!!

Creamy Potato Dill Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 4 russet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 2 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk soup base
• 3 drops Young Living Dill Vitality Essential Oil
• Dried dill for seasoning and garnish

Directions:

1. Melt butter in large pot. Add onion, salt and pepper. Cook for 2 min.
2. Add potatoes and garlic. Cook 1 min.
3. Add vegetable broth and 2 drops of Dill Vitality oil and dried dill. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes.
4. Mash potato mixture to desired consistency.
5. Gradually stir in almond milk soup base and one more drop of Dill Vitality oil. Bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste and dried dill for garnish.

The soup wasn’t perfect but it was easy and there is promise for a better version…I definitely find beauty in that!!!