Leek, fennel and potato soup with herb salsa

Name: Leek, fennel and potato soup with herb salsa
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 h
Total time: 5 h 10 min
Yield: Serves 4–6
Ingredients: 60 ml (2 fl oz/¼ cup) extra virgin olive oil; 3 leeks, white part only, washed, thinly sliced; 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped; 1 fennel bulb, halved, thinly sliced; 1 tablespoon finely snipped chives; 3–4 tablespoons coarsely chopped mint; 80 ml (2½ fl oz/¼ cup) extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling; finely grated zest of 1 lemon; 800 g (1 lb 12 oz) potatoes, cut into 4 cm (1½ inch) pieces; 50 g (1¾ oz/¼ cup) raw cashews; 1.5 litres (52 fl oz/6 cups) good-quality vegetable stock; crusty bread, to serve; 2 teaspoons fennel seeds, toasted, coarsely ground; large handful flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, coarsely chopped

Preparation info

Serves
4–6

Difficulty
Easy
Ready in
6 hr

Appears in

Slow Cooker Vegetarian

By Katy Holder

Published 2018

About

Cashews give this vegan soup the sort of velvety creaminess you’d usually associate with cream or butter, and the aniseed flavour of fennel marries well with the earthiness of the potatoes.

Ingredients

60 ml (2 fl oz/¼ cup) extra virgin olive oil
3

Vegan
Soup

Method

Put all the soup ingredients into the slow cooker and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook on high for 5 hours, or until all the vegetables are tender.

When the soup has 10 minutes left to cook, put the herb salsa ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine well.

Using a stick blender, food processor or blender, purée the soup in batches until smooth, then che