Adapted by Penny Wenham from a recipe by Diana Earnshaw
As Diana says in her original recipe, “If you have some leftover cooked potatoes you can add them before pureeing. If you don’t have 300g of cooked potato, just use what you have and make up the weight with raw potato”. I’m using nutritional yeast here in this vegan version of the soup to bring a cheesy taste to it without using a dairy cheese. I’ve suggested an optional topping of grated cheese alternative but I’d urge caution to anyone new to giving up dairy cheese. Alternatives are getting closer in taste all the time, but they’re not identical and I’d recommend giving your taste buds a good few months without dairy cheese before trying a vegan cheese so the difference is less noticeable to your palate.
Ingredients
- 300g potato, grated
- 1l vegetable stock
- 25g butter alternative or oil – True Food sells Naturli Organic Block
- 2 onions, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 30g nutritional yeast – True Food sells this as a loose refill and in tubs (Engevita)
- Handful spinach leaves, torn
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley or celery leaves
- pinch freshly grated nutmeg
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 50g cheese alternative grated (optional) – True Food sells Violife Cheddar Block and Applewood Smoky Cheese Alternative, either of which would be great here
Method
- Heat the butter alternative or oil in a large saucepan.
- Add the onions and cook for around 5 minutes until they are soft.
- Add the crushed garlic and potato and cook for a further minute or two.
- Add the stock and nutritional yeast.
- Puree, then add the torn spinach. Simmer for another minute or two.
- Add seasoning to your taste, a sprinkling of nutmeg and chopped parsley or celery leaves.
- Top with grated cheese alternative if using