This Healthy Spinach Soup is made with fresh spinach, cashews, and warm spices to create a rich, velvety soup without any cream. It's creamy, flavorful, and nourishing, with plenty of fresh spinach for a wholesome, clean-eating soup.
If you are looking for vegetarian soup recipes for winter, then try my chickpea tomato soup or the instant pot cauliflower soup next!
A Quick Look at the Recipe
✅ Recipe Name: Spinach Soup
🕒 Ready In: ~15 minutes
👪 Makes: 2 servings
🧑🍳 Main Ingredients: Fresh spinach, cashews, Indian spices and stock
📖 Dietary Info: Healthy, gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegetarian
📌 Difficulty: Quick and easy
Why you’ll love this spinach soup recipe?
This spinach soup is rich, creamy, and incredibly flavorful without using a drop of cream. Fresh spinach is simmered with cashews, garlic, onion, warm spices like coriander, turmeric, and cayenne, then blended until silky smooth. The cashews create a luscious, velvety texture while keeping the soup light, wholesome, and naturally dairy-free.
It's packed with fresh spinach and nourishing ingredients, making it a healthy, comforting meal that's perfect for chilly evenings or whenever you're feeling under the weather. Plus, I'll show you a simple trick for preserving the soup's naturally vibrant green color, so it looks just as fresh as it tastes.
- maria doss
Featured Comments
One reader Kate writes, "Easy and delicious. Just the right amount of spice, and it did not need thickening. I used my hand blender, so did not have to transfer to a standard blender. Less mess. Thank you, Maria!" ★★★★★
One reader Deborah writes, "I got to make this delicious soup this weekend. I just love it! It was so quick to make and had so much flavor. Thank you for sharing this recipe!" ★★★★★
Jump to:
- A Quick Look at the Recipe
- Why you’ll love this spinach soup recipe?
- Featured Comments
- The Secret to Preserving the Bright Green Color of Spinach Soup
- Cashews for thickening spinach soup
- Best spinach for spinach soup
- Tips for Success
- More healthy soup recipes
- Healthy Spinach Soup (Creamy without Cream)
- How to make?
The Secret to Preserving the Bright Green Color of Spinach Soup
The key to vibrant green spinach soup is not overcooking the spinach. Spinach gets its beautiful color from a natural pigment called chlorophyll, which begins to break down when exposed to heat for too long. That's why overcooked spinach soup often turns a dull olive green.
The trick is simple: cook the spinach just until it's wilted, then simmer it for only about 1 minute—no longer. Spinach is a delicate leafy green that cooks in just a few minutes, so it doesn't need much time on the stove. As a general rule, the longer it cooks, the more its bright green color fades.
Following this simple technique keeps the fresh spinach soup looking fresh and vibrant while also preserving the spinach's delicate flavor and nutrients.
Cashews for thickening spinach soup
Cashews are one of the best ways to make spinach soup rich and creamy without using any heavy cream. As they cook and blend, their natural fats and starches create a silky, velvety texture that's similar to cream. In fact, cashew cream is a popular dairy-free substitute for heavy cream in many recipes.
Cashews also have a mild, slightly sweet, buttery flavor that complements spinach beautifully without overpowering it. Instead, they mellow the slight bitterness of the spinach while letting its fresh flavor shine through.
While flour is a common soup thickener, it isn't the best choice here. Flour needs to cook for several minutes to lose its raw, pasty taste. Since this spinach soup is cooked only briefly to preserve its vibrant green color and fresh flavor, cashews are the perfect thickener—they create a naturally creamy soup without requiring long cooking times.
Best spinach for spinach soup
I prefer using baby spinach because it's convenient and gives the soup the best flavor. Most grocery store baby spinach comes triple-washed and ready to use, so there's no washing or chopping—just open the container and add it straight to the pot. It also has a naturally mild, slightly sweet flavor and wilts in just a minute or two, making it perfect for preserving the soup's bright green color.
You can absolutely use regular spinach if that's what you have. Just remove any tough stems, roughly chop the leaves if they're large, and cook them 30 to 60 seconds longer since they take a little more time to soften.
Tips for Success
- Don't overcook the spinach. Once you add the spinach, simmer the soup for just 1 minute. Cooking it longer can dull its bright green color.
- Use raw cashews. Be sure to use raw, unsalted cashews, not roasted or toasted ones.
- Choose the right stock. I use 33% less sodium chicken stock. If you're using regular or no-salt-added stock, adjust the salt to taste. For a vegetarian version, simply use vegetable stock.
- Adjust the seasoning. This recipe was tested with 33% less sodium chicken stock and ⅜ teaspoon salt (¼ teaspoon + ⅛ teaspoon). Since sodium levels vary by brand, taste the soup after blending and add more salt if needed.
- Use a high-powered blender. A blender like a Vitamix or NutriBullet creates the smooth, velvety texture this soup is known for. An immersion blender will work, but the soup may not be quite as silky because it doesn't blend the cashews as finely.
More healthy soup recipes
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Healthy Spinach Soup (Creamy without Cream)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- ¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ cup chopped onions
- 1 garlic clove chopped
- 30 raw cashews
- 2 medium handfuls baby spinach
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper powder use less if desired
- ⅛ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 can (14.5oz) chicken stock (or use vegetable stock)
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon salt refer notes
Instructions
- Saute onion and garlic. Heat vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. When hot, add cumin seeds and let them sizzle. Add onion, garlic, and cashews, and saute for about 2 minutes until onions are translucent.
- Cook spinach. Add the spinach, coriander powder, cayenne, and turmeric powder. Saute for about 2 minutes, until spinach is wilted and spices are toasted.
- Simmer and blend. Add the stock and salt, bring to a boil, and cook for just 1 minute—NO LONGER! Remove from the heat and let it cool slightly. Carefully transfer the mixture to a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Pour into bowls and serve.👉 The amount of salt will depend on the type of stock you use, so taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information, based on third-party calculations, should be seen as estimates, not guarantees, as various factors like product types, brands, processing methods, and more can alter the nutritional content in recipes.
How to make?
Looking for more recipes using fresh spinach? Try our banana spinach smoothie or the chickpea spinach curry next!
MADE THIS RECIPE AND LOVED IT? 💚 Please leave a ⭐️STAR rating and COMMENT below- I love to hear your feedback! Tag me with your creations on Instagram and find me on Facebook.
Hi, I’m Maria! I share easy, flavor-packed dinners, high-protein meals, and irresistible baking ideas. If you’ve ever asked, “Don’t know what to cook tonight?” you’re in the right place. And yes—there’s plenty here for breakfast, snacks, and dessert too. More about maria ->
Ashika | Gardening Foodie
I love my veggies cooked and also not much of a salad person so this spinach soup is perfect. It looks so pretty too. Definitely would love to try this.
Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe Maria...have a great week 🙂
Maria Doss
Thank you so much Ashika:)
Kelly @ Kelly Lynns Sweets and Treats
I love my veggies cooked, but also love salad (but my lettuce has to be room temp!!). This soup looks so fresh and I love that it’s dairy free. Your pictures are gorgeous!!
Kelsie | the itsy-bitsy kitchen
This sounds delicious and I love that gorgeous vibrant green!
heather (delicious not gorgeous)
ooo yes love that you used cashews!!! it makes things so creamy and dreamy. i once added them to a smoothie that was marketed to taste like apple pie, and it definitely gave the smoothie a buttery, pie crust like element (:
Maria Doss
Thank you Heather:)
Katherine | Love In My Oven
That delightful green is enough to make me want to make this, Maria!! But it also sounds DELICIOUS!
Maria Doss
Thank you Kathy:)
Deepika|TheLoveOfCakes
What a pretty color! And I love that you have used cashews instead of cream! And its such a quick recipe! Lovely!!
Maria Doss
Thank you Deepika:)
deborah
I got to make this delicious soup this weekend. I just love it! It was so quick to make and had so much flavor. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Maria Doss
You are so welcome, glad you loved it 🙂
cat
I was bored at home, craving hot soup as feeling low energy and flu-ey. Used veggie bouillon for my stock, and did not have coriander or garlic in my pantry...but it turned out GREAT!! I did have fresh cayenne and turmeric I brought back from Morocco and used these. I LOVE veggies and eat 10 cups a day so threw in a huge bunch of spinach. It was delicious, light, healthy and nutritious. I like to get my proteins from nuts so the cashews were great to avoid needing meat or tofu (YAWN). Thank you for saving me with this Saturday Soup Surprise..!!!
Maria Doss
Hi Cat, Happy to hear that, Maria
Kate
Easy and delicious. Just the right amount of spice, and it did not need thickening. I used my hand blender, so did not have to transfer to a standard blender. Less mess. Thank you, Maria!
Maria Doss
Glad you liked it hun, happy weekend - Maria