White Beans, Vegetable, & Cashew Cream Soup

Every few months I make a whack of homemade pureed soups.  I love soup for lunch and making it myself means I can keep them healthier and make them to my taste.  Buying a new fab blender made a big difference too.  My soup now come out really creamy and smooth.  Best purchase I ever made. 

Each time I look at recipes I have made before, and new ones I would like to try. New ones often aren't made to be pureed, so while I use their list as a guideline, I know adjustments mist be made.  The biggest is a lot more vegetable broth to keep the puree from being too thick.  I also try to use a variety of different veggies in the soups so they aren't all the same. I also am looking for recipes with different seasonings. 

As these are all pureed to a very smooth texture, I don't add meat. Recently I have been experimenting with adding beans (canned, and well rinsed), uncooked lentils and nuts (in the form of cashew cream). While I love adding a protein to the soups, they do have a tendency to separate a bit when frozen. Lentils have been okay to far, but garbanzo beans and nuts have been unpredictable.  I can live with that, but if you were going to serve to family or company, I would run the thawed soup in the blender a bit to get the texture smooth again. 

This soup started with one focus and shifted as I went along.  In the end, it took a lot of broth to get the puree to the right thickness. It made enough to fill 5 two-serving containers for my freezer, and a little leftover for today's lunch. The one note I have is when thawing a frozen container it seems to separate  bit, so might need a little zap in the blender to smooth it out angain. Enjoy!

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Chickpea, Vegetable, and Cashew Soup

Ingredients - 

1 T                         Olive Oil

2                            Onions, quartered

6 cloves                Garlic. crushed or sliced

2                           Celery stalks, cut in chunks
2                            Carrots, peeled and cut in large chunks

1                            Red bell pepper, but in chunks
3 oz                       Sun-dried tomatoes
⅓ C                       Tomato paste
3 C                        Cooked or canned white beans (rinsed well)

8 C or more           Low-sodium vegetable broth, divided (depends on how thick you want it)

1/2 T                     Smoked paprika

1/2 T                     Garlic powder
1 tsp                      Dried thyme

1 tsp                     Chili flakes

¼ C                       Fresh parsley, chopped
½ C                       Fresh basil, chopped

3 C                        Baby spinach

1 C                        Cashew Creme - store bought or homemade (if freezing the soup it might be best to add after thawed as the freezing might make the puree separate)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 T (15 ml) fresh lemon juice (optional)

Instructions -

Heat the oil in large pot and add the onions, garlic and celery. Sauté until just getting soft. Add the carrots, bell pepper, and sun-dried tomatoes. Sauté for a for a few more minutes.  Add the minced garlic, smoked paprika, garlic powder, dried thyme, chili flakes, salt, black pepper, tomato paste, white beans, 5 C of the vegetable broth. Cover and cook until all vegetables and the couscous are very soft. Add in the parsley, basil, and spinach. Simmer just long enough for every

Turn off the heat. Puree the soup in small batches until very smooth, adding more broth to the blender as needed, then pouring each batch into a large bowl as done.  When all the soup is blended and in a large bowl, stir in the cashew cream and lemon juice if you are using (if freezing I would add this to the thawed soup). Add more vegetable broth if needed until the pureed soup is the consistency you like. Season to taste with salt and pepper.  

Stir well and divide into freezer containers. I use 2 serving ones with about 4 or 4-/2 cups in each.  As noted bore, for the first time ever when I thawed a container it had separated. Bit and needed a quick zap in the blender gin to smooth it. Not sure if that is from the chickpeas or the cashew crème.