Vegan Cream of Spinach Soup by Tess Masters
Thanks to: The Blender Girl Tess Masters
“The best thing about this soup is that it takes less than half an hour from chopping board to table; and is dead easy. Unlike starchy soups that need about 30-40 minutes to cook through, this soup only needs about 20 minutes. Just chop up your ingredients, bring to the boil, simmer, blend and serve. I can’t seem to go past using whole roasted garlic in my soups. It just brings a depth of flavor that is hard to beat. I suppose, if you are on a winning blend, just keep spinning!”
— The Blender Girl, Tess Masters
(Serves: 4-6)
Ingredients
- 4 cups broth using Massel Concentrated Liquid Stock, vegetable flavor
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ cup green onions (mostly white sections), finely chopped
- 1 cup red onion, sliced
- ¼ cup celery, diced
- 1 cup zucchini, diced
- ¼ cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 2 cups firmly packed baby spinach
- ¼ cup raw almonds, blanched and slivered OR ¼ cup raw cashews, soaked
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350 ̊F.
- Cut off the top of the head of garlic, wrap the bulb in aluminum foil, and roast it on a baking sheet for 30 to 40 minutes, until tender. Allow the bulb to cool and then squeeze the garlic pulp out of the husks. (This should yield 2 tablespoons or more of roasted garlic.) Set aside.
- Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large saucepan. Add the green onions and red onion and sauté for 5 minutes, until the onions are translucent. Add the celery, zucchini and parsley and sauté for 5 more minutes.
- Stir in the roasted garlic and the vegetable broth. Increase the heat to high and bring just to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the spinach and simmer for 5 minutes more, until the leaves are just tender.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat and allow the soup to cool somewhat. Stir in the nuts.
- Pour the soup into your blender in batches and pureé on high for 1 to 2 minutes, until smooth and creamy.
- Return the soup to the saucepan and warm over medium-low heat. Season to taste with pepper and serve.
