Cashew Cream Soup
This recipe is a holiday staple at my house. I usually make a recipe before Thanksgiving in order to make my Green Bean Casserole, and then freeze the rest so that it will be on hand for Christmas dinner as well.
I have broken out the recipe so that you can make a basic bechamel, or white sauce, and flavor it as you like to replace any of those canned creamed soups that we Americans have grown up using in our casseroles! I typically mix mushroom and celery because I prefer the flavor combo to one versus the other. But I have also been known to add some "no-chicken" style flavoring to create sauces for roasts and burgers too! So have fun coming up with your own flavor combinations that make your dishes uniquely yours!
Of course you could always just serve this as a soup! Enjoy!
Cashew Cream Soup
PREP TIME 15 | COOK TIME 15 | TOTAL TIME 30
Servings: 8-10
Category: Soup
Cuisine:
Ingredients
Basic Bechamel:
Cashews 2 cups
Onion, diced 1 cup
Garlic, minced 2 tsp
Vegetable stock 1 1/2 cups
White wine 1/2 cup
Nutritional Yeast 3 Tbl
Onion powder 1 Tbl
Nutmeg 1 pinch
White pepper 1 pinch
Salt 1 tsp
Mushrooms, diced 3/4 cup
Celery, diced 3/4 cup
Instructions
Soak the cashews overnight (optional if you have a high-speed blender like I do), or do a "quick" soak by soaking the nuts in a bowl of boiled water for 30 minutes.
Heat a medium sized pot over medium heat and saute, in oil or water, the diced onion for 5 minutes or so. Add the minced garlic for an additional couple of minutes.
Transfer the onion and garlic to a blender. Add remaining ingredients except for the mushrooms and celery and blend until smooth.
For the soup:
Using the pot that sauteed the onions and garlic, saute the mushrooms and celery in oil or water. Add a pinch of salt.
Once the mushrooms are soft and the celery translucent, add the white sauce mixture from the blender and stir to incorporate.
Heat through, stirring regularly, over medium heat.
Serve immediately as a soup, or cool and use in recipes that call of cream of mushroom or celery soup!
Notes
I saute in the bottom of my pot so that I don't have to clean a pan and a pot when I am finished!
The sauce/soup will reduce as it is cooked. Add more liquid if you choose to have a thinner consistency.
