Half-Day Fast Recipes: Creamy Vegan Mushroom Soup

This nourishing and decadent soup skips the dairy found in traditional cream of mushroom soup and instead gets its creaminess from cashews, which are a great source of minerals (especially copper, zinc, magnesium, and manganese), healthy fat, fiber and antioxidants. This soup is also loaded with mushrooms -- a good source of b-vitamins and beta glucans, a fiber that helps lower cholesterol and supports a healthy immune system.

If you’ve just completed a full day cleanse or you’re concluding a half day juice fast with a light meal, this comforting plant-based recipe is an ideal choice for your transition. Gentle on your digestion but still brimming with vitamins, a plant-based soup will help ease you back into a healthy diet.

Ingredients

• 18 oz. shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
• 18 oz. oyster mushrooms, cleaned and sliced1 cup organic raw cashews (soaked for 4 hours, drained and rinsed)
• ¼ cup chopped Italian parsley
• 1 ½ tbsp. fresh thyme
• 1 ½ tsp. chopped fresh sage
• 1/2 tsp. dried herbes de Provence
• 40 oz. organic vegetable broth (homemade or low sodium boxed)
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 large shallots, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 2 ½ tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil (plus extra, if necessary, as described below)
• Himalayan pink salt and ground, black pepper to taste
• Extra fresh thyme for sprinkling (optional)
• Additional vegetable broth to thin soup if a thinner consistency is desired (optional)

Directions

1. Mix sliced shiitake and oyster mushrooms together and then divide them into four batches.
2. Heat 1 ½ tbsp. olive oil in a large soup pan over medium heat. Add the first batch of mushrooms and salt and pepper to taste. Heat until mushrooms are tender and lightly golden. Set mushroom batch aside and repeat the process for each of the remaining batches. If necessary, add extra olive oil to the pan before you cook each additional batch of mushrooms.
3. When all of the mushrooms are cooked, add them back into the pan and mix them with ½ tbsp. thyme and ½ tsp. sage. Heat mushroom-herb mixture over medium-low heat for approximately two minutes or until herbs are fragrant. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Remove mushroom-herb mixture from pan and set aside.
4. Add remaining 1 tbsp. olive oil to soup pan and heat over medium heat. Add onion, shallots, and garlic, and sauté until vegetables are tender. Next add remaining thyme and sage, parsley, herbes de Provence, onion powder, garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste, and toss to coat vegetables.
5. Then, add three-quarters (3/4s) of reserved mushroom-herb mixture to onion-shallot-garlic mixture and mix to combine.
6. Next, add cashews and 40 oz. vegetable broth to vegetables. Bring to a boil. Once soup reaches a boil, immediately reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
7. Turn off heat and remove soup from the stove. Pour soup into a high-speed blender and blend until creamy and smooth. Add additional vegetable broth to thin consistency of soup, if desired.
8. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
9. Pour soup into bowls.
10. Top each bowl of soup with mushrooms from the remaining (¼) mushroom-herb mixture. Sprinkle with fresh thyme, if desired.
11. Serve and enjoy!

Makes approximately 8 ½ cups of soup.