Asparagus Pistachio Soup Oil-Free Vegan

This creamy nourishing soup blends fresh asparagus, peas, lettuce, potatoes and pistachios into a rich silky soup with a delightfully fluffy texture. Perfect for anyone who already loves creamy green soups but craves something a little different.

UNIQUELY CREAMY

I am a lover of all things asparagus and a creamy green soup geek through and through. Picking a favorite soup is impossible because I truly do love all my soup recipes. I wouldn’t be publishing them if I didn’t. Still, this one feels pretty special. Pistachio’s may be the quirkiest ingredient in this recipe and they do add richness and a lovely sophisticated flavor that pairs exceptionally well with asparagus. But l think what makes this soup so special is the copious amount of lettuce. Delicate lettuce leaves quickly wilt and disappear into a soup, and yet they do so much when it comes to creating a silky, almost fluffy, texture once the soup is processed. Yes, I said fluffy! Not an adjective I thought I’d ever use to describe a soup. You’ll just have to try it and see if you agree.

LETTUCE VS OTHER LEAFY GREENS

For all the other vegetables in this soup it’s ok to use frozen. But fresh lettuce is crucial for this recipe to turn out the way it was intended. Don’t get me wrong, if you were to use another leafy green such as spinach or chard, you’d still have a delicious nourishing soup, it just won’t have the creaminess that makes this soup so special. I’ve only tried this recipe with green leaf lettuce, also known as loose leaf lettuce, summer crisp or Batavia. Other good choices might be Boston or Bibb lettuce. Romaine would be fine too, though it wouldn’t be my first choice. Red lettuce makes for an equally good texture, but it would detract from the bright green aesthetic. My advice is to use a lettuce that’s bright or light green, tender and curly.

OPTIONAL SHIITAKE MUSHROOM POWDER

I’ve listed shiitake mushroom powder as optional because I don’t want people to feel like they need to purchase an unusual ingredient before they can make this soup. But I really do love the way that shiitake mushroom powder magnifies the umami flavors in this soup, and urge all vegan and plant-based foodies to try it if they get the chance.

Mushrooms can contribute a depth of umami flavor that we usually associate with animal foods. But, more often than not, what I want is to harness some of that umami mushroom goodness into my cooking without introducing the texture of mushrooms. And that’s where mushroom powders come in. Shiitake mushroom powder is my favorite culinary mushroom powder because it’s the best at subtly enhancing the umami impact of the recipe without making things taste noticeably mushroomy. For more about what makes this ingredient so special, you can read an entire post about it here.

PISTACHIOS AND ALTERNATIVES

You can substitute cashes for pistachios in this recipe and get similar results. I happen to love pistachios and get a little tired of using cashews all the time. Raw or roasted pistachios both work in this recipe. I like to use raw because they’re significantly greener and a bit softer. The softness makes it easier to blend them into a smooth cream.

Pro tips: Raw pistachios go rancid pretty quickly so it’s a good idea to store them in the freezer, or at least in the fridge, to prolong shelf life.

USING FROZEN VEGGIES

I created this recipe in mid during peak asparagus season and used fresh asparagus, but you can make this soup with frozen asparagus too. Frozen asparagus may even make the soup a little creamier. For peas, frozen is usually the most convenient option year round, but fresh would be fine too. All the other vegetables except for the lettuce can be pre-frozen as well. Freezing celery may sound weird to some but I do it all the time when I know I won’t get through a bunch of celery before it goes limp. I just chop it first so that it’s ready to go in soups and stews. I do the same thing with onions and potatoes sometimes.

TWO BLENDER RECIPE

For this recipe it’s best to use two different blenders, a high speed standing blender to create the pistachio cream and an immersion blender to transform the broth along with all the other ingredients into a creamy soup while everything’s still inside the pot.

EASY OIL-FREE SAUTÉING

Oil-free sautéing is a great way to cut back on the amount of oil in your life and it’s surprisingly easy, economical, and starts feeling like second nature once you get used to it. If you want to use oil to sauté the vegetables, go right ahead. But because my blog focuses on whole food plant-based adherent recipes, I avoid highly processed calorie-dense ingredients like oil as much as possible.

In this recipe, the chopped onion is sautéd separately first in order to develop a layer of caramelized flavor before adding the other vegetables. Begin by heating about two tablespoons of vegetable broth in a medium to large soup pot or dutch oven over high heat. Keep more vegetable broth close at hand to use as needed. When the broth in the pot comes to a rolling boil, reduce heat to medium-high and add the sliced onion. Sauté for about four minutes, or until the onions start to become translucent, adding little bits of broth as needed to prevent sticking. Then add the celery and garlic and sauté for another four minutes. You can continue to add small amounts of broth if vegetables start to stick to the bottom of the pot. Now add the chopped potatoes, asparagus and shiitake mushroom powder and sauté for three or four more minutes. This process ensures that you’ve built a layer of caramelization before adding the peas and covering the vegetables with broth to begin the simmering phase in which flavors blend as the potatoes and asparagus become soft.

DON’T RUSH THE SIMMER

There’s no way around it. The potatoes and asparagus must get soft, or the soup will end up being gritty no matter how much you blend. It takes several minutes for everything to come to a boil before you can reduce the heat and start the simmering. Then after 20 to 25 minutes the potatoes and asparagus should be soft enough to proceed. When the potatoes are soft, the asparagus will be as well so you really only need to check the potatoes. The exact amount of time will depend on the type of potatoes and other factors like the altitude where you live.

The lettuce, fresh thyme leaves, nutritional yeast are added near the end of the cooking process because too much cooking either detracts from the flavor or simply isn’t necessary. This is also when I like to add my base level of salt and pepper. I wait until the lettuce wilts down before adding the pistachio cream and proceeding to the blitzing phase.

BLITZING PHASE

Once the lettuce has wilted and practically vanished into the soup, it’s time to add the homemade pistachio cream and process the soup with an immersion blender until smooth.

LEMON, TASTING AND ADJUSTING

Lemon juice is last but by no means least. I love how even a small amount of lemon juice brightens the flavor of creamy green soups. The reason lemon juice goes in at the end is primarily because too much heat can make it turn bitter. Another reason for adding lemon juice at the end is that the amount you need will depend on how all the flavors have come together. Because I already know that I like my soups quite lemony, I usually squeeze in half a lemon’s worth of juice before tasting. But everyone’s different, so I suggest starting with one tablespoon of lemon juice, then tasting the soup and deciding how much more you want to add. This is also the perfect time to add more salt and pepper according to your own tastebuds. If the soup is too thick you can add more liquid—broth, water or plant milk—to achieve desired consistency.

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