Spicy Cashew Spring Greens Soup

4.59 from 12 votes

Spicy Cashew Spring Greens Soup

This delicious warming vegan soup surprises with extraordinary depth of flavor and unexpected spring salad mix. It's an easy recipe, especially with a pressure cooker and immersion blender. Makes about 8 cups of soup, serves 6 to 8.

Prep Time20

Cook Time15

Total Time35

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Vegan

Servings: servings

Calories: 237kcal

Author: Letty | @lettyskitchen

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 leeks, white part mostly, cleaned and sliced into rings
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 serrano chiles, seeds and veins removed, chopped (see note)
5 cups plus 1 1/4 cups vegetable broth
2 small Yukon gold potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2- dice
10 ounces spring greens salad mix
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 ¼ cups raw cashews, soaked 1 to 4 hours
2 teaspoons white miso

Topping options:

Toasted cashews
Pea shoots, sunflower sprouts, or small green (see note)
Chopped Kalamata olives, definitely optional

Instructions

In a large soup pot or pressure cooker over medium flame, heat the olive oil. Saute the leeks until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and serrano chiles, 5 cups of the vegetable broth, the potatoes and the spring greens salad mix. Add the turmeric and salt.
Cover and cook until the potatoes are soft, about 18 minutes. Alternately–using a pressure cooker, lock the lid in place, and cook on high pressure 6 minutes. Lower the heat just enough to maintain high pressure and cook for 6 minutes. Quick-release the pressure.
Puree using an immersion blender if you have one. Otherwise, puree in batches in a regular blender and return to the pot.
In a blender, whir the cashews and the remaining 1 ¼ cups of the vegetable broth until smooth, about a minute. Blend in the miso. Set aside ½ cup for garnish and whisk the remaining cashew miso cream (1 ¾ cup) into the soup. Stir in the lime juice and about 10 grinds of black pepper. Taste, adding more salt if you think it needs it. Reheat the soup but do not allow to boil. (see note)
Ladle into bowls. Decorate with swirls of the reserved cashew miso cream, and your choice of toppings.

Notes

Serrano chiles with seeds and veins removed add mild pleasing spiciness. If you like intense spicy heat, include the seeds and veins.
For crisp crunchy texture to contrast the creamy smooth soup, garnish with pea shoots or sunflower sprouts. Any small green, like cilantro or basil leaves, microgreens, or leaves from the spring mix look pretty too.
Miso is a fermented food with live, active probiotic bacteria—the good stuff--and boiling will kill the probiotics. Besides that, if the soup is fresh off a boil, the cashew cream swirl quickly sinks to the bottom of the bowl.

Nutrition