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.
Equipment
Blender
Recipe 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.
To clean leeks, split them down the middle and run your fingers through all the layers under cold water. Use only the white and very light green parts for this soup. Save the dark green tops for vegetable stock.
To prep the fennel, cut the bulb in half, lay it flat, and slice. No need to be precise since everything gets blended. Save the fronds for garnish.
Keeps in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days. This soup also freezes well.
A creamy, golden vegan soup with fennel, leeks, apple, walnuts, and turmeric. The walnuts blend directly into the soup for a rich, dairy-free creaminess. Ready in under an hour.