Saute onions, garlic, carrots, and margarine with a pinch of salt over low heat until onions are mostly clear (avoid browning).
Then add water, McKays Vegan Chicken seasoning (or alternate, see blog post) and potatoes. (Use diced potatoes and whole potatoes so that you can save a few for small dices to add texture to the soup later. If the potatoes are quite large, you may want to cut them in half in order to get them cooked!)
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook soup for approximately 10 minutes or until potato chunks are fork tender. (Now remove whole potatoes from the pot and set aside.)
Now add ground cayenne pepper and vegan cream cheese. Blend with a hand immersion blender in the pot or in traditional blender in smaller batches. Dice remaining whole potatoes and add to blended soup. Taste test for salt. Serve!If re-heating later, avoid boiling the soup to prevent curdling.
Notes
No vegan cream cheese on hand?
An equal amount of vegan sour cream or coconut cream (the thick stuff on the top of a chilled can of full fat coconut milk!) also work great!
Saving for later:
If you don't eat all this soup up in one go, don't worry. Save it for later! It'll keep in the fridge for up to a week and in the freezer for about three months. Just be sure to avoid boiling it when rewarming to prevent a curdled type texture.
Feel like dressing it up?
Add some homemade vegan bacon bits, sliced scallions, and vegan cheddar cheese shreds! Super yum!