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If you haven’t made my creamy vegetable soup yet—you’re missing out. This is a “lazy day recipe,” using a TON of vegetables, sneaking in some plant-protein and requiring minimal prep. It’s dairy-free, yet still delivers that rich, silky texture you’ll love. Pair this soup with crusty bread, a kale caesar salad, or those “biscuits in a can” the kids all love and be in awe.
Table of contents
What is Creamy Vegetable Soup?
Creamy vegetable soup is a classic, comfort food made with simple ingredients like potatoes, beans, and frozen vegetables simmered in a flavorful broth. Instead of heavy cream or cheese, my recipe uses blended cashews to create a silky, dairy-free base that tastes rich and indulgent while staying light and nourishing. It’s hearty enough for a full meal, quick enough for weeknights, and can be frozen and enjoyed later, too.
Ingredients You’ll Need
To make this creamy vegetable soup you’ll need a few basic ingredients you can find at any grocery store:
- Cashews: The base of this soup is raw cashews, blended into a silky cream that keeps this soup dairy-free, high in protein and sooooo creamy.
- Onion + celery: The classic aromatic duo that builds depth of flavor. If you have extra, save it to use in my Cabbage Soup recipe.
- Potatoes: baby red or gold potatoes give this soup body and creaminess. You can swap half out for cauliflower, like I did in my Vegan Potato Soup, if you’re trying to cut down on carbs.
- Garlic powder + Italian seasoning: Together, they add a savory, herb-filled flavor that you’d recognize in most cream-based soups.
- Frozen mixed vegetables: time-saving, cheap and versatile; use carrots, peas, corn, beans, or whatever you’ve got.
- Cannellini beans: These silky beans add plant-based protein and a creamy bite. These are my favorite beans to use in soups.
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How to Make Creamy Vegetable Soup
Soften the cashews. Soak raw cashews in hot water while you prep everything else.
Build the base. Sauté onion and celery in avocado oil until softened.
Add the heartiness: Stir in potatoes, seasonings, frozen vegetables, beans, and black pepper.
Simmer the soup: Add most of the vegetable stock, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until the potatoes are fork-tender.
Make the cashew cream: Blend drained cashews with the remaining broth until completely smooth. Works best in a high-speed blender (not an immersion blender).
Finish creamy: Stir the cashew cream into the pot, simmer a few minutes longer, and adjust seasonings as needed.
Recipe Tips
• Use a medley of frozen carrots, peas, corn, green beans, or broccoli for variety.
• You can use larger potatoes— just dice them small to cook quick.
• Add a splash of lemon juice or top with fresh parsley for brightness.
• Stir in cooked quinoa, rice, or barley for an even more filling meal.
Storage Suggestions
Leftover creamy vegetable soup tastes even better— so double this recipe so you can enjoy it again and again.
- Fridge: Store in airtight containers for up to 5 days.
- Freezer: Freeze in Souper Cubes Freezer System for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
- Reheat: Warm gently on the stovetop or in the microwave, adding a splash of broth or water if it thickens too much.
If you make this creamy vegetable soup recipe, I’d love to hear how it turned out in the comment box below. Your feedback helps me and all the readers in this community. And if you’re interested in more plant-based recipes (and exclusive content), sign up for my weekly recipe newsletter.
Creamy Vegetable Soup
Jen HansardVideo
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 2 tablespoon avocado oil
- 1 cup yellow onion diced
- 1 cup celery rib diced
- 16 ounce baby red potatoes quartered
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon black pepper, ground ground
- 3 cups mixed vegetables frozen
- 1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans drained
- 8 cups vegetable stock divided
Instructions
- Place cashews in a bowl and cover with hot water. Set aside to soften while you prepare the rest of the recipe.
- Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.
- Stir in the potatoes, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, frozen vegetables, beans, and black pepper.
- Add vegetable broth (set aside 2 cups to use in step 5) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.
- Drain the cashews and transfer to a blender with the remaining 2 cups of vegetable broth. Blend on high until completely smooth.
- Pour the cashew cream into the pot and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the soup thickens slightly.
- Adjust seasonings as needed. Ladle into bowls and serve warm.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Equipment
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes—swap in unsweetened coconut milk, oat milk, and some frozen cauliflower to make it a creamy texture, yet without cashews.
Not at all! Fresh veggies work great—just chop them into small, even pieces so they cook quickly.
Absolutely. Chickpeas, navy beans, or great northern beans are all good substitutes for cannellini beans.
Yes, it freezes beautifully. Just cool completely, portion into containers, and freeze for up to 3 months.
Add fresh herbs (like rosemary and thyme), a squeeze of lemon juice before serving, or top with nutritional yeast for extra cheesiness.
My husband has celiac disease and I have alpha gal so finding foods both of us can and want to eat can be a challenge at times. This soup solved all of that. It was quick and easy to make cause I always have these ingredients on hand. Plus It is filling and delicious. My husband added celery salt and had it with a grilled cheese. I added turkey bacon bits on top. Yum yum! Will have this often when winter comes.
Yay! So glad you enjoyed the soup. Those sound like yummy additions.
I really liked this soup, Creamy Vegetable soup. I prepped all of the five soups over the weekend. Everything was in a separate bag waiting to be cooked and eaten. I am looking forward to trying all of them. I used the frozen veggies that I had in the freezer. I used sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and mushrooms. I also only had one quart of vegetable broth so I used mushroom broth. I did not use all of the stock/broth called for. Two quarts was more than enough. I ended up with 10 pints of soup! I like it enough to eat this much over time. The one thing I would change is to cut back on or leave out the Italian seasoning. It is just not a flavor I like very much. Thank you for this challenge!
That is so impressive that you prepped all of the soups over the weekend! Yes, next time you can leave the Italian seasoning out and swap with a spice you like.
This soup is so good I really enjoyed the creamy texture without using any dairy. This will be a great recipe to customize as you can use different vegetables and grains to make it and change it up which makes it a winner for me.
Love how you are thinking about changing things up to come up with lots of different soups.
Enjoying as I write. Did a few tweaks. Added bell pepper, red in this case but any color would do, to the onion and celery. Down here in Louisiana we call that the trinity along with a garlic clove which I used instead of the powder. Used herbs de Provence instead of Italian seasoning because that’s what I had and prefer. Russet potato, again because that’s what I had. My dices were probably small because in only needed about 10 minutes to cook. For the mixed vegs, I did a mix of fresh and frozen. Fresh carrots and broccoli stems, sauted with the trinity. Frozen corn and peas. Broccoli flowerets and chopped celery leaves in last 5 minutes. Skipped the black pepper.
Ate half my bowl as is. Was delish as cooked and probably will repeat with various veggie mixes. My food calculator came out with 18g protein, but I still needed a little more for my goals. I could have added some protein powder and may in the future, but I had some left over pulled pork so I threw in about 2 oz to the second half of my bowl.
PS. I cut the recipe in half for just me and I may have measured poorly or not cooked down to thicken enough, but it came out as more than two 3-cup servings, they were more like 4-cup. Will probably reduce the liquid next time and add extra veggies.
That sounds like a great idea! Thanks for the review.
That sounds so yummy! I love the trinity. Also, i bet the herbs de Provence were amazing. Thank you for the review and the details to make your soup. I also love that you used broccoli stems.
This was a tasty soup. I’ve never made a cashew cream before and it was pretty simple and added a nice flavor. I used frozen veggie blend of green bean, carrot and corn. I wasn’t sure if the potatoes were supposed to be peeled or not but I peeled them because I didn’t want the skins floating around.
You can peel them or not it is totally up to you. So glad you enjoyed the soup!