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Vegan Butternut Squash Zuppa Toscana

5 from 36 votes
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 6
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Ingredients

  • ⅓ cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours and drained
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 4 vegan veggie sausages (see notes), chopped
  • 1 large yellow onion, small dice
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • ½ teaspoon dried thyme
  • ½ teaspoon dried oregano
  • ¼ cup oil-packed sun dried tomatoes, minced
  • 1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and chopped (about 4 cups chopped squash)
  • sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
  • 4 cups vegetable stock, plus extra
  • 4 cups chopped kale, lightly packed (from about 1 small bunch)
  • 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
  • chopped parsley, for garnish

Instructions

  • Make the cashew cream. In an upright blender, combine the cashews and water. Blend until completely smooth–like a thick milk. Set aside.
  • Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pot over medium heat. Swirl the oil around and add the chopped vegan sausages. Brown the sausages on all sides, breaking the pieces up a bit with your spoon. Once fully browned and cooked (after about 5 minutes), transfer the cooked sausage to a plate.
  • Add remaining olive oil to the pot and swirl. Add the onion and sauté until translucent and very soft, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic, nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, dried thyme, and dried oregano. Stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the sun dried tomatoes and stir again.
  • Add the chopped butternut squash and some big pinches of salt and pepper. Stir everything up and then pour in the vegetable stock. Place a lid on top of the pot, slightly askew to allow venting. Bring the mixture to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Simmer until squash is tender, about 15 minutes.
  • Once squash is tender, add the kale and simmer until it is soft, about 3-4 minutes. Add more stock (or water) if you need to at this point. Pour in the cashew cream from earlier and add the cooked veggie sausage. Stir. Bring to a boil and stir in the apple cider vinegar. Taste the soup and adjust seasoning if needed.
  • Serve the butternut squash zuppa Toscana hot with chopped parsley and extra ground black pepper on top.

Recipe Notes

  • My favourite vegan sausages for this recipe are either Field Roasts’s Italian Garlic & Fennel or Beyond Meat’s Hot Italian options. I used the Beyond Meat ones in these photos.
  • If you have enough oil in your jar of sun dried tomatoes, I recommend using that instead of regular olive oil for the sautéing steps.
  • If you do not wish to make cashew cream as outlined in the recipe, I recommend using 1 ¼ cups unsweetened non-dairy creamer or a rich oat milk instead. Add it in step 5 (and obviously skip step 1).
  • If you want something that sticks to the original zuppa Toscana, replace the squash with chopped Yukon gold potatoes. The cooking time will be roughly the same. 
Vegan butternut squash zuppa Toscana is a creamy, satiating, robustly flavoured, and autumnal twist on the classic Italian soup with plant-based sausage and cashew cream. Flavour from dried oregano and thyme, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, and nutritional yeast makes for an ultra savoury profile.