Vegan soup is easy to make – in fact, many classic recipes are already vegan or close enough with some minor adjustment. But cream of vegan soups take a bit more care to really make them stand out. This requires an alternative to cream. To show a wholefood example, this vegan cream of spinach soup combines two interesting ingredients – soaked, blended cashews, and courgette. Bringing the two together is the key to this vegan soup.
Courgette is mostly water, easily blends smooth and unless cooked at high temperatures it has a flavour that is mild and complementary to many soups. Its special property is giving soups a richness and smoothness. It does this well, the texture is excellent – but it lacks the creamy taste. For that, we’re using soaked, blended cashews. They lack the texture, but they do have the taste. Together, they make an excellent rich, vegan cream of spinach soup.
Creamy spinach and courgette soup
Ingredients
- 2 large onion (about 175g)
- 2 large courgette (aka zucchini) (about 400g)
- 100 g spinach
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 litre vegetable stock
- Few sprigs parsley
Ingredients – cream
- 25 g cashews
- 200 ml boiling water
Instructions
- Place the cashews in the 200ml boiling water and set aside to soak – 20 minutes or more is sufficient, so they will be ready when the soup is finished.
- Dice courgette and onions, then gently fry in oil with regular stirring for around 10 minutes, during which the onions will turn transparent then start to go golden and aromatic
- Add stock, spinach and parsley to the pot and simmer for 15 minutes
- Blend soup to make it smooth
- Blend cashew and water mixture until smooth and stir in to the soup
With a glut of courgettes from the garden, I thought I would try this – my husband was not so sure. However, we all loved it – even our 12 year old son. I was going to freeze some – not any more. I have had a request for more, so wIll be making bread to go with the left overs. It was nicer than the courgette cake recipe from another site. I am wondering if I could use kale instead of spinach – as we have a lot of that too. I don’t think I blended the cashews enough, but I will know that for next time. Lovely…
Hi Tracie, awesome to hear how much you’re enjoying the soup. I think kale would work well, it’s a similar flavour, but it is tougher so the cooking time might need increasing. If you try it out I’d love to hear how it goes?