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Creamy Italian Quinoa Soup

January 5, 2017 by Alyssa 28 Comments

Creamy Italian Quinoa Soup -- packed with veggies, high in protein and made without any dairy!

Welcome back, my friends! This is my first recipe post back after the New Year and it only seems fitting that we make a super duper cozy meal filled with veggies. It's time to shake off the holiday treats and get back to our healthy habits.

For me, that means filling my plate (and bowls) with veggies and plant-based proteins. If you've been following for a while, then you already know I'm pretty much a vegetarian at this point, but for those of you who aren't, I want to challenge you to something this year:

Eat 100% plant-based for one day a week.

Might sound a teeny bit scary I know, but trust me when I tell you this: when you nourish your body with plant-based foods and skip out on the meat and dairy, you are going to feel incredible. No joke. It's transformational.

Creamy Italian Quinoa Soup -- packed with veggies, high in protein and made without any dairy!

Now to me, plant-based doesn't necessarily mean vegan. It means focusing on plants (fruits, veggies, whole grains, legumes) and skipping out on meat and dairy. Eggs are fine in my book, as is honey. Two things about that: you want to make sure your eggs are organic and free-range, and honey needs to be raw and preferably local.

So what does eating plant-based look like?

It's actually pretty simple. You can check out any of my What I Eat in a Day videos on my YouTube channel, but here's what a typical day could look like:

  • Breakfast: smoothie bowl OR oatmeal (my creamy coconut matcha oatmeal would be perfecto)
  • Lunch: green salad with chopped veggies and chickpeas OR a veggie sandwich/wrap
  • Dinner: a quinoa buddha bowl OR this creamy Italian quinoa soup

Snacks can include things like protein bars, fresh fruit, nuts/nut butters, lighter smoothies, etc. See what I mean? You can TOTALLY do that for one day week!

Creamy Italian Quinoa Soup -- packed with veggies, high in protein and made without any dairy!

I've discovered that dinners tend to be the most challenging for folks. They're either working full time with little time to cook, or are cooking for a family of picky eaters, and often times both, so “healthy” or “vegetarian” meals are out of the question.

And then there's the issue of taste. How many times have you heard (or even said to yourself), “Healthy food doesn't taste good”?

When I was first transitioning to this way of eating, I told myself the exact same thing. Until I realized it wasn't about the kind of food I was making (i.e. healthy food), it was about the way I was cooking and the ingredients I was using.

Which is precisely where this soup comes into play. Not only is it a cinch to make, but it's also healthy, full of flavor and is made entirely from plant-based goodies.

Creamy Italian Quinoa Soup -- packed with veggies, high in protein and made without any dairy!

The base of this soup starts with a mirepoix, which is just chopped up onions, carrots and celery. Those get sauteed with some garlic, salt and pepper, and begin to build the flavor of the soup. Then, it's on to the tomatoes.

Since we're in the heart of winter and tomatoes are certainly not in season here in New York, I knew turning to canned was the best option. And my brand of choice? Always Tuttorosso.

If you remember back in October when I shared that recipe for my healthy tomato bisque, part of that also talked about why I adore this brand so much. I was lucky enough to tour their factory and saw that the tomatoes are picked at the peak of ripeness (which also means the best flavor) and are in the can in less than two hours. The quality blew me away!

And I truly believe that your food is only as good as the ingredients you cook with. Because when you use high-quality ingredients, your food is going to have more flavor and nutrition.

This CREAMY Italian Quinoa Soup is thick, hearty and made without any actual cream! [vegan]

I went with two different tomato products for this soup: stewed tomatoes and tomato sauce.

I chose stewed because I wanted the soup to have somewhat of a rustic feel. So by roughly chopping the stewed tomatoes, rather than using diced, there were larger chunks of tomato mixed in. Loved that! (if you don't want to use stewed, you can totally sub diced!)

The sauce gave the soup a nice thick texture, a gorgeous color and even more tomato flavor.  After all, we want this to be as tomato-y and Italian as possible, right?!

This CREAMY Italian Quinoa Soup is thick, hearty and made without any actual cream! [vegan]

This CREAMY Italian Quinoa Soup is thick, hearty and made without any actual cream! [vegan]

The other secret to this Italian quinoa soup? Cream of course! (<– jk we're not using dairy, remember?)

So instead of the actual cream, I whipped up a cashew cream in my blender and stirred that into the soup. All you need are cashews, nutritional yeast, miso paste (for that nice umami flavor), some water and a scoop of the soup base. Blend it all together and you have a cheesy-tasting cream without any of the dairy!

This CREAMY Italian Quinoa Soup is thick, hearty and made without any actual cream! [vegan]

And one final thing about this soup: it freezes wonderfully! You can make a big pot over the weekend, and freeze the leftovers in containers for lunches/dinners throughout the week. That means #noexcuses, my friend!

So are you ready to join me?

To make this a bit easier, let's start with just the month of January. For the next four weeks, let's make a goal to eat at least one day per week 100% plant-based. If you're up for it, click here to take the “pledge” and I'll send you a free ebook that contains 5 delicious, plant-based salad recipes!

Free Salad Ebook: meal-sized salads powered by plants!

This CREAMY Italian Quinoa Soup is thick, hearty and made without any actual cream! [vegan]

Creamy Italian Quinoa Soup

print shopping list
Preparation 10 mins 2018-04-25T00:10:00+00:00
Cook Time 30 mins 2018-04-25T00:30:00+00:00
Serves 6 – 8     adjust servings

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 white onion, chopped
  • 4 medium carrots, chopped
  • 4 celery ribs, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 (15oz) can chickpeas, drained & rinsed
  • 1/3 cup white quinoa (uncooked)
  • 1 (14.5oz) can Tuttorosso Stewed Tomatoes*
  • 1 (15oz) can Tuttorosso Tomato Sauce
  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 tablespoon dried Italian herbs
  • 4 – 6 cups fresh spinach
  • 1/2 cup raw cashews
  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (+ more if desired)
  • 1 teaspoon miso paste
  • 1/4 cup water
  • Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Heat oil in a large saucepan or dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, celery and garlic and saute until carrots have started to soften, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
  2. Add chickpeas and quinoa to the mixture.
  3. Roughly chop the stewed tomatoes, then add them, along with the juice, to the pot with the sauce, broth and herbs and stir to combine. Season with a bit more salt and pepper. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce to simmer and simmer, partially covered, for 20 – 30 minutes (or longer if desired).
  4. While the soup is cooking, add the cashews, nutritional yeast, miso, water and ½ cup of the soup broth (just scoop it from the pot) into a high-powered blender and blend on high until smooth and creamy.
  5. When ready to serve, stir in spinach and cream. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary (I stirred in a touch more nutritional yeast). Serve immediately!

by Alyssa

4 1
1 review
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size Based on 6
Amount Per ServingAs Served
Calories 320kcal Calories from fat 117
% Daily Value
Total Fat 13g20%
Saturated Fat 2g10%
Sodium 1205mg50%
Carbohydrate 42g14%
Dietary Fiber 12g48%
Sugars 12g
Protein 14g

Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:

Calories2000
Total FatLess than65g
Sat FatLess than25g
CholesterolLess than300mg
SodiumLess than2,400mg
Total Carbohydrate300g
Dietary Fiber25g

 
This post was sponsored by Tuttorosso, but all opinions are my own. As always, thank you for supporting the brands that I love and I hope you try their tomatoes!
 

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This CREAMY Italian Quinoa Soup is thick, hearty and made without any actual cream! [vegan]

Filed Under: Dairy-Free, Dinner, Recipes, Soup, Vegan, Vegetarian Tagged With: chickpea, italian, spinach, sponsored, tomato

Comments

  1. Karlie says

    January 5, 2017 at 7:30 am

    The flavors of the cashew cream sound incredible! I can’t wait to try this!

    Reply
    • Alyssa says

      January 5, 2017 at 8:57 am

      Yay!! I can’t wait to hear how it turns out for you, Karlie! xo

      Reply
  2. Sarah | Well and Full says

    January 5, 2017 at 4:31 pm

    Thank you for promoting a plant-based diet!! This soup looks incredible 🙂

    Reply
  3. Will says

    January 5, 2017 at 6:28 pm

    Don’t you have to soak the cashews for several hours beforehand?

    Reply
    • Alyssa says

      January 9, 2017 at 2:41 pm

      Depending on your blender, not necessarily. I have a high powered blender and didn’t soak mine at all and they came out totally smooth!

      Reply
  4. Cris says

    January 10, 2017 at 8:11 pm

    I’m allergic to cashews. Is there a substitution you could recommend? I’d use a dairy product but that would defeat the purpose 😉

    Reply
    • Alyssa says

      January 11, 2017 at 12:41 pm

      You could coconut cream, but that would change the flavor profile….so maybe the other option would be to blend up some chickpeas or tofu?

      Reply
    • Emily says

      March 9, 2017 at 9:05 pm

      Macadamia nuts or Brazil nuts both make fantastic rich nut creams. Raw brazil nuts are pretty easy to find in a WholeFoods or heath store. Hemp hearts are another option, but they have a slightly grassy flavor.
      Sorry you can’t enjoy cashews. 🙂

      Reply
      • Alyssa says

        March 10, 2017 at 7:17 am

        Thank you so much for sharing! Will definitely try that out 🙂 xo

        Reply
  5. Suha says

    January 11, 2017 at 5:00 pm

    Oh my god Alyssa!! I am totally obsessed with the recipes, every single day I have to visit your website and pull something out and try it, I have a list for faves… I just tried this creamy yumm-ness!!! Oh my god!
    I cooked all kind of things, cookies, breakfast bowls, soups, pesto divine sauce, and I don’t know what to say other than thank you!

    Reply
    • Alyssa says

      January 12, 2017 at 2:46 pm

      I’m thrilled you’re enjoying everything, Suha!!! xo

      Reply
  6. patricia says

    January 11, 2017 at 6:10 pm

    I made this tonight and it was yummy! I added atouch more nutritional yeast also!;-)

    Reply
    • Alyssa says

      January 12, 2017 at 2:45 pm

      So glad you enjoyed it!! xo

      Reply
  7. Donna says

    January 13, 2017 at 3:48 pm

    This creamy Italian quinoa soup is incredible. I’ve had it three times this week. My new favorite go to soup when it’s chilly outside. I add Cabbage to mine.

    Reply
    • Alyssa says

      January 13, 2017 at 5:48 pm

      That’s amazing!! I’m SO glad you’ve been enjoying it 🙂 And the cabbage? Such a great idea!

      Reply
  8. Liz says

    January 17, 2017 at 2:06 pm

    Love this soup! It was a big hit in my house! Delicious! Do you happen to know how many cups this recipe makes? Trying to calculate Weight Watchers points 🙂

    Reply
    • Alyssa says

      January 18, 2017 at 3:11 pm

      I would say 12 – 14? I think a serving is about 2 cups

      Reply
  9. Gabrial says

    January 26, 2017 at 7:08 am

    Thumbs up!! My boys (including Dad) usually want meat with dinner. I made this and everyone finished their bowls!! I skipped the cashew cream (although that sounds delightful) and went a heavy cream. Also, topped with a bit of parmesan cheese…I know, I know, but it was YUMMY!

    Reply
    • Alyssa says

      January 26, 2017 at 10:52 am

      So glad you enjoyed it! And modifications are totally fine 🙂

      Reply
    • Lora says

      March 12, 2017 at 7:50 pm

      Gabrial, how much cream did you use? Thanks!

      Reply
  10. Debbie says

    November 11, 2017 at 9:32 am

    Is there a substitute for the Miso?

    Reply
    • Alyssa says

      November 29, 2017 at 5:28 pm

      You could try a little tamari!

      Reply
  11. Emma says

    November 14, 2017 at 9:47 am

    Just made this AGAIN! Me and my family LOVE it. Thank you Alyssa, keep up the great work, lots of love xxxx

    Reply
  12. Susan says

    December 13, 2017 at 1:40 pm

    I am eating a bowl of this awesome soup now! It is soooo delicious!
    I sautéed the veggies in a bit of water (not using oil) and thinking next time may use a white bean instead of chick peas…..
    Thank you for this recipe; it is hands down one of the best I’ve tried…..and I think that brand of tomatoes made a huge difference. Can’t wait to try more of your recipes!!

    Reply
    • Alyssa says

      December 19, 2017 at 8:33 am

      YAY!!! So glad that you enjoyed it 🙂 XO

      Reply
  13. Sarah says

    January 7, 2018 at 6:41 pm

    Just made this and …… AHMAZING!!! Being vegetarian for 9 years I’m always looking for new veggie soups in the winter and this one knocked it out of the park! The cashew cream with miso is brilliant . Thank you Alyssa!!

    Reply
    • Alyssa says

      January 23, 2018 at 11:24 am

      OMG YAY! So happy to hear you enjoyed it!!

      Reply

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Hi there! I'm Alyssa!

photoWelcome to Simply Quinoa, a blog dedicated to simple, healthy food, always with a quinoa twist. I'm a former marketer turned full-time blogger living in NYC, with a serious love of anything peanut butter or chocolate. It's nice to meet you!
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