This recipe for Vegan Pesto Zuppa Toscana is a hearty and cozy meal that's totally vegan! Inspired by the Olive Garden favorite, "Tuscan Soup" is a perfect weeknight dinner full of protein and nutrients.
Love soup? Check our this roundup of all of my favorite vegan soup recipes!
What is Zuppa Toscana?
Zuppa Toscana is a broad term that translates directly to "Tuscan Soup," or soup from the Tuscany region of Italy. Traditional zuppa toscana normally is a soup made from kale, white beans, zucchini, potatoes, toasted bread, and Italian bacon. The American-based restaurant chain Olive Garden has popularized it in the US, but with heavy cream and Italian sausage.
Today's recipe is inspired by both of these dishes, but with a purely plant-based spin.
Ingredient Details: How They Work Together + Substitutions
There are a number of ingredients in this dish, so I'll highlight the main ones here and explain their significance!
Cashews, when blended with water, form a "cream" that gives this soup a lot of body and richness. Slivered almonds can be substituted.
Tempeh seasoned with soy sauce takes the place of bacon or sausage, adding a lot of protein (and a dose of probiotics). If you do not have access to tempeh, feel free to skip it or use white beans in its place.
Onion, celery, and carrots form the mirepoix, or main flavor base upon which the soup is built.
Basil pesto is an untraditional addition, but lends a lot of brightness (it's also just one of my favorite sauces). It's usually relegated to summer meals, but I like to freeze it to have on hand in winter months. It is also of course available at the store year-round; I like the Cashew Pesto sold by Trader Joes (featured in this roundup of my favorite vegan Trader Joe's grocery items).
Small red potatoes lend a bit of comforting heft to this dish, and pair perfectly with the basil pesto flavor. These can easily be substituted for cubed Russet potatoes.
Vegetable broth unsurprisingly rounds out this dish. I do not like buying low sodium broth, as I prefer to just water down (by half) its full sodium counterpart. If you have homemade broth, this is of course the best option! I need to work on a recipe for that.
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Other Cozy Soup Recipes to Try Next
20-Minute Spicy Peanut Noodle Soup
More Pesto + Potato Recipes
This is one of my all-time favorite flavor combinations! Here are two other recipes that celebrate it.
Pesto Zuppa Toscana
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup cashew pieces
- 3 TBS extra virgin olive oil
- 1 block of tempeh crumbled (optional, white beans work well as a substitute)
- 1 teaspoon tamari or soy sauce
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 3 ribs celery sliced into thin pieces
- Salt and pepper
- 5 large clove garlic
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ cup pesto homemade or store bought (I like Trader Joe's Cashew Pesto)
- 8 small red potatoes or 2-3 medium-size russets, chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 6 cups low sodium vegetable broth or 3 cups full sodium broth + 3 cups water
- 5 cups kale chopped
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Begin by preparing cashew cream. To a high-speed blender, add cashews and 1 cup water. Blend until creamy. If you do not have a high speed blender, let the cashews soak in 1 cup of hot water for a little while until they are slightly softened. Set aside. This is our "cashew cream."
- To a large pot on the stove, add olive oil over medium heat. Add tempeh pieces and let brown for 5-7 minutes, stirring to prevent burning. Add tamari/soy sauce. You want the tempeh to take on some color. Add a splash of water if it begin to stick (this will also help steam out any bitterness from your tempeh).
- Add to the pot the chopped onion and celery. Stir to combine and add a pinch of salt and a few twists of pepper. Let cook for 5 more minutes until onion is golden. Add garlic, red pepper, and pesto and cook 1 minute more.
- To this pot, toss in your chopped potatoes and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil and let cook for 6-9 minutes, until potatoes are soft enough to be pierced with a fork.
- Remove from heat and add in reserved cashew cream, kale, lemon juice. Taste and see if you'd like to add more salt or lemon.
N. Bahn-Ahden says
Simply delicious!
Emily says
Thank you so much for trying it!!
Sue0523 says
Flavors are spot on - delicious for a chilly evening! I subbed butter beans for the tempeh (because that's what I had on hand) and it was superb. Thanks, GH!
Emily says
Yum - my favorite! Thank you for trying 🙂