Every season is vegan soup recipes season in my eyes. The color of this fennel walnut soup with turmeric wins me over every time. I love adding a handful of toasted nuts to a blended soup because it “creams” the texture up a bit. This also makes the soup super satiating!
The First Mess Cookbook
There’s plenty more vegan soup and stew recipes in my cookbook! And so much more seasonal plant-based inspiration.
I love fennel with leeks and apples in a salad, all sprinkled with toasted and chopped walnuts. A warm version of that felt just right to me. The added sprinkle of turmeric for that slightly bitter and warm edge works really nicely.
Cooking with Leeks & Fennel:
- I wash leeks by splitting them down the middle and running my fingers and water through all the layers. If there is grit in your leeks, that’s where it’s hiding!
- To chop fennel for soup, I use the bulb portion and start by cutting it in half down the middle. From there, I lay the flat side down, and cut it into slices. You don’t have to be overly precise here because everything is getting blended. Save the fennel fronds for garnish.
- The part of the leek that I recommend using for soup is the white and very light green part. These parts are flavorful and tender.
- To use up the dark green parts of the leeks, I recommend chopping them up and saving them for vegetable stock.
I like to serve this soup with a fine drizzle of maple syrup, fennel fronds, and extra toasted walnuts. To store leftovers, transfer to a sealed container and keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. You can also freeze this soup!
For more soup inspiration, I recommend checking out my creamy white bean soup with kale, carrot and red lentil soup, and this simple chickpea soup.
Fennel Leek Soup with Walnuts & Turmeric
Ingredients
Soup
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 leeks, white and light green parts chopped (discard green tops or use them for stock)
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped
- 1 medium fennel bulb, cored and chopped
- 1 medium apple, peeled, cored and chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- ½ cup walnut halves, toasted
- sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 4 cups vegetable stock
To Serve
- maple syrup
- freshly ground black pepper
- chopped fennel fronds
- more toasted walnuts chopped
Equipment
Notes
- This is a pretty simple soup! Of course, I always think homemade vegetable stock is ideal, but especially with a soup with limited ingredients like this one.
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium. Add the chopped leeks and thyme. Stir and sauté the leeks until they are a bit soft, about 4 minutes. Add the chopped fennel and apples. Stir everything up a bit. Add the turmeric and stir to coat all of the vegetables evenly. Sauté the vegetables until the fennel is starting to soften, another 4 minutes. Add the walnuts and stir them in. Season the whole thing with salt and pepper. Add the vegetable stock and stir.
- Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Simmer until all of the vegetables/apples are very soft, about 12-15 minutes. Remove the soup from the heat. Carefully blend the mixture in batches in an upright blender until totally smooth. Check the soup for seasoning and adjust accordingly.
- Pour the puréed soup back into the pot. Bring the puréed fennel walnut soup to a boil and then serve hot with little drizzles of maple syrup, fresh black pepper, fennel fronds, and more toasted walnuts if you like.
Good substitute for fennel ?
Celery would work nicely!
-L
ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! I never would have thought these ingredients would render such a lovely and tasty soup! Hats off to you!
Could you do this with pecans?
Hi Bennett,
I think pecans would work well here! Roughly the same density as walnuts, just a slightly different flavour that would still be complimentary I think.
-L
Hands down my favourite soup.
Such an interesting ingredient combination for a beautiful warm and full flavoured soup.
I grow fennel in my garden solely to make this! Thank you for sharing so generously.