This is a great base recipe. I had a delicious cream of broccoli soup at a restaurant near my home months ago and I wanted to relive the experience. I used olive oil and margarine to saute two stalks of celery and 1/5th red onion until soft. I then used about 2-3 tsps of vegetable base with 16 ounces of boiling water. I didn't have fresh broccoli so I used a bag of frozen broccoli, cauliflower and carrot instead. I nuked in the microwave until soft and ate the carrots and placed the cauliflower and broccoli in the pot to simmer for 10 minutes then I used a potato masher to break down the cauliflower and broccoli into smaller parts. I then pureed half of the contents and returned to the rest of the soup, added about 1/2 cup of low fat milk, salted to taste, mixed, and served with croutons. I will definitely try this again. (I uploaded the pic in the orange bowl with 4 croutons on top). Thanks again for the recipe!!!