Cream of Cashew Pea Soup

A luxuriously creamy soup made with sweet peas and cashews, slow-cooked with onions and aromatic vegetables. This velvety soup is finished with a crispy potato chip topping and fresh scallions for the perfect balance of textures.

6 servings
1 hr 2 min

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 2 large onions
  • 2 stalks celery
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • to taste kosher salt and pepper
  • 2 cups raw cashews
  • 2 tablespoons raw or light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 2 pounds frozen sugar snap or green peas
  • 1 tablespoon malt vinegar
  • for garnish scallions and potato chips

Cooking Instructions

  1. 1.

    Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-low. Add onions, celery, and garlic and cook, stirring often and adding a splash or so of water if the bottom of pan gets too brown, until golden brown, 30-40 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add cashews, sugar, red pepper flakes, and 3 cups water and bring mixture to a simmer. Cook until vegetables are very soft and losing their structure, 10-15 minutes.

    40 min

  2. 2.

    Blend one-third of sugar snap peas with one-third of vegetable mixture in a blender, adding some cooking liquid from vegetable mixture as needed to thin, until very smooth, about 2 minutes. Press purée through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium saucepan; discard solids. Working in 2 batches, repeat with remaining peas and vegetable mixture, adding water as needed if you run out of cooking liquid. If soup is still very thick, thin with water until you get a velvety, pourable consistency. (You should have about 7 cups soup.)

    15 min

  3. 3.

    Stir vinegar into soup; season with more salt and pepper and warm over medium-low until heated through.

    5 min

  4. 4.

    Serve soup topped with scallions and potato chips.

    2 min

  5. 5.

    Soup can be made 2 days ahead. Let cool; cover and chill. Reheat over medium-low, thinning with water as needed until pourable.