(Vegan) Lasagna Soup with Herbed Macadamia Ricotta for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

Coming across But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan! by Kristy Turner at the library and seeing the recipe for Lasagna Soup, I knew I wanted to try it. I own Turner's first book, But I Could Never Go Vegan! and wanted to try out this book before purchasing. Plus, my friend Stephanie linked up a lasagna soup to Souper Sundays a few weeks ago and I have been thinking about it ever since.

Turner's version uses chickpeas in place of any vegan meat substitutes and has a topping of Herbed Macadamia Ricotta. I made a couple of tiny changes to the recipe--upping the garlic and the tomatoes--mainly because the only no-salt crushed tomatoes I could find was in a 28-ounce can and I didn't want to bother with freezing/storing the leftovers. I upped the dried spices a bit too. My changes are noted in red below.

Lasagna Soup with Herbed Macadamia Ricotta
Slightly Adapted from But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan by Kristy Turner
(Serves 6)

1 tsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced (I used 5 cloves)
1 1/2 cups cooked, or 1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 medium zucchini, sliced
1 medium yellow squash, sliced
1 Tbsp dried basil
2 tsp dried oregano (I used 1 Tbsp)
1 tsp dried parsley (I used 2 tsps)
pinch of cayenne (or crushed red pepper)
1 (15-oz) can no-salt added tomato sauce
1 (15 oz) can no-salt added crushed tomatoes (I used 1 28-oz can)
1 quart low-sodium vegetable broth
12-oz lasagna noodles, broken in half
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast, optional
1 Tbsp lemon juice
salt and black pepper to taste
3 cups loosely packed chopped fresh spinach
1 cup loosely packed chopped fresh basil
Herbed Macadamia Ricotta (recipe below)
Fresh basil to garnish

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. 

In another large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add onion and garlic and saute until the onion turns translucent. Add the chickpeas, mushrooms, squash, and dried herbs and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until vegetables start to become tender. Add the tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes and broth and bring soup to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes, until vegetables are mostly tender.

Meanwhile, cook the lasagna noodles according to package directions--until al dente. Drain the pasta and add them to the soup. Stir in the nutritional yeast and lemon juice. Taste and add salt and black pepper to taste. Add the chopped spinach and basil and remove soup from heat.

Serve immediately topped with a scoop of the Herbed Macadamia Ricotta.

Leftover soup will keep in a container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Turner notes not to let the soup simmer for too long after adding the noodles or while reheating as they will absorb more liquid and break apart. Add more liquid if needed when reheating. 

-----

Herbed Macadamia Ricotta
From But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan by Kristy Turner
(Makes about 1 Cup)

1 cup raw macadamia (or cashew or almonds), soaked in water for at least 1 hour, drained with water reserved
3 Tbsp + extra reserved soaking water
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white miso

Combine the macadamia nuts, 4 teaspoons of the reserved soaking liquid, lemon juice, herbs, salt and miso in the bowl of a food processor. Process mixture until smooth, pausing to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. If the cheese is not moving smoothly, add more soaking water a teaspoon at a time until it moves smoothly. Note: ricotta is usually a bit grainy so you don't have to get the mixture completely smooth. 

Leftover ricotta can be kept tightly covered in the fridge for up to a week.  

Notes/Results: This soup has good flavor and hit the spot. The herbed macadamia ricotta is just the right touch and even with the addition of the chickpeas--a bit unusual for lasagna, it has all of the taste of the dish. Very creamy and satisfying--even without the meat. The lasagna noodles are a little unwieldy to eat with their size but they cut pretty easily with the spoon. For the ricotta, I soaked my macadamias over night but had a hard time in getting them very smooth in the food processor--adding quite a bit of extra soaking water. Then I thought about it and decided that ricotta usually isn't completely smooth and decided not to worry about it. It ended up melting into the soup as I ate it and was delicious. Next time, I may make it in my high-speed blender instead just to see what it does to the texture. All-in-all it was a relatively quick and easy soup to make and tasted great--I think it would satisfy vegans and meat-eaters alike. I would happily make it again.  

   
We have some good friends with delicious dishes waiting in the Souper Sundays kitchen from last week--let's have a look!

Shaheen of Allotment2Kitchen made Simple Roasted Beetroot and Carrot Salad and said, "As the beetroot and carrots roasted together, the beetroot infused some of its colour into the carrots almost making it look like almost like rainbow carrots.  the red onions became soft and silky and the small potatoes, golden and crisp."

Melynda of Our Sunday Cafe shared Mediterranean Cottage Cheese Salad with Za'atar and said, "Looking for ways to eat more vegetables, led me to this salad. It is delicious and can be made at a moments notice from ingredients on hand. Paired with some whole grain bread and a piece of fresh fruit, it will also make a wonderful lunch or light supper."

Terri of Our Good Life is here this week and brought Indian Style Carrot and Tomato Soup. She said, "Recently I learned I needed to reduce the acidity of my stomach, and my doctor recommended that I use tomato powder instead of fresh tomatoes.  Here is a version of tomato soup using tomato powder. I love fresh tomatoes and while this soup was good, it would be best with fresh tomatoes.  Still, in a pinch, I would not hesitate to use the tomato powder!"

Tina of Squirrel Head Manor has been suffering with a head cold so she doctored up a pack of Indian-spiced lentils and made a quick Bombay Lentil Soup. She said, "It seems like 2 weeks that this head cold has been with me but the reality is....it's only been a few days. It drains your energy level something awful so an easy fix for a hot comforting lunch was a convenience food from Tasty Bite. I doctored this packet of lentils up with some vegetable broth and it was wonderful."

Mahalo to everyone who joined in this week! 

Souper Sundays is back with a new format of a picture link each week where anyone interested can post their soups, salads, or sandwiches any time during the week and I post a recap of the entries the following week.)

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here. 

If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you.

On your entry post (on your blog):

• please mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and link back to this post.
• you are welcome to add the wonderful Souper Sundays logo (created by Ivy at Kopiaste) to your post and/or blog (optional).

An InLinkz Link-up

Have a happy, healthy week!