I don’t know why I fret over the names of my soups, but naming my soups are so hard. I name them, rename them, and then I forget what I named them. For instance, the other day my mother-in-law asked for some of my delicious immunity soup (meaning this one), but I made her my cream of mushroom soup that I also once called immunity soup. She was so confused because it wasn’t the soup she asked for…I forgot to tell her I rename soup often. So, I’ve made new rules and my new rules are this: when it goes on the bog, the name is official. This soup has been called zucchini and kale soup, creamy vegetable soup, and anti-cancer soup, but from this day forward, it will be called “Creamy Zucchini Immunity Soup” even though it has lots of kale in it. And split peas, lentils, leeks, carrot juice and even celery. I can’t include all that in the name. I named it because I like the long “e” sound at the end of the first three words. I guess it’s the poet in me.
Just try it and you’ll remember its name. It is absolutely delicioso!
This soup is extremely healthy. It has an assortment high powered vegetables. 
This recipe makes a lot of soup so if you are just a household of one or two, you’ll need to get a few zip-lock, quart size bags and store it in the freezer for instant meals later. Making a huge pot of soup and storing the rest in the freezer is a great strategy for me. I just take a serving size bag out of the freezer, run warm water over the bag, pop into a bowl, heat it up for a couple of minutes in the microwave, and viola…an instant healthy meal. I love the idea of having a fresh meal ready in minutes. It keeps me from messing up the kitchen, and it saves us money because as soon as James comes home starved with nothing ready to eat, he will order a pizza.
Cook the dried beans, juice the carrots and celery and chop the vegetables up like this:
Throw all of this in a pot with the cooked beans, the carrot and celery juice. Take a couple of cups of the soup broth and blend it with the cashews in a high powered blender. I use a Vitamix. Add it back to the soup along with the mushrooms, and you’ll have a creamy mixture of some of the healthiest, most delicious soup ever.
I like to serve it with toasted quinoa bread.
- ½ cup dried split peas
- ½ cup dried beans (I use lentils)
- 4 cups water
- 3 large onions, chopped
- 8 zucchini, cut small
- 3 leek stalks, chopped coarsely
- 5 stalks of kale, stems removed, chopped finely
- 5 pounds of carrots, juiced (4-5 cups)
- 2 bunches celery, juiced (2 cups)
- 1 cup cashews
- 1 cup mushrooms, chopped
- 2 teaspoons salt (or more, salt to your taste)
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon white pepper or any pepper to taste
- In a large stock pot, add beans and split peas to water. Bring to a boil. Cook for 30 minutes.
- Add onion, leeks, kale, zucchini. Cook until slightly tender.
- Add carrot and celery juice. Simmer for 10 minutes.
- Remove 2 cups of the broth and add to a blender. Add cashews. Blend until smooth.
- Add cashew-broth mixture back to the soup.
- Add the mushrooms. Simmer for another 30-40 minutes or until the beans are tender.
- Add springs of parsley for garnish.
