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“Amazing! Flavors are on point. Didn’t change a thing. Make sure to use a blender or (emersion blender like I did if you have one) the soup will be very creamy and well blended with no cashew chunks.”
I’m so excited to share this Marry Me Chickpea Soup (Dairy-Free) with you! It’s a cozy, one-pot soup with a rich, creamy, dairy-free tomato broth, soft chickpeas, creamy cashew cream, and bright herbs for that restaurant-worthy finish. This is a true weeknight win—minimal prep, no blender for the soup base, and such a comforting bowl that still feels nourishing. Keeping the vegetables in little chunks instead of blending even convinced my partner, who’s not the biggest soup lover, as he usually does not find it very satisfying, but he absolutely loved this one! Each serving brings 25 g protein, 18 g fiber, and about 9 mg iron, and is made with simple nourishing ingredients, to support longevity and your immune system, and leave you feel satisfied and energized. Plus it’s meal prep friendly, and reheats very well!
If you love this, try our Marry Me Chickpeas or High-Protein Marry Me Pasta Meal Prep for two more cozy “Marry Me” twists. For more cozy plant-based soups, browse our Healthy Zuppa Toscana and Healing Anti-Inflammatory Butternut Squash Soup, or try our High-Protein Romesco Pasta for another creamy weeknight dinner.
Why I love this recipe (as a nutritionist)
- Iron-rich and energizing: about 9 mg iron per serving, the bioavailability is enhanced by pairing it with alliums and Vitamin C-rich ingredients.
- Protein you can feel: 25 g protein per serving from chickpeas, soy milk, nutritional yeast, and gnocchi
- Fiber-forward comfort: 18 g fiber supports a healthy microbiome and steady fullness
- Balanced and satisfying: complex carbs, plant protein, and healthy fats from olive oil and cashews
- One-pot ease: simple steps, everyday ingredients, and minimal dishes for busy nights
- Customizable: easy gluten-free, oil-free, or nut-free swaps without losing the creamy vibe
Ingredient notes
- Chickpeas: the main protein and fiber source; swap with butter beans, cannellini beans, great northern beans, or cooked black lentils.
- Gnocchi: adds body and comfort; for gluten-free, use certified GF gnocchi or swap for diced potatoes cooked in the soup
- Sun-dried tomatoes: concentrated umami and natural sweetness; oil-packed or dry-packed both work
- Cashew cream: blends into a silky finish; for nut-free use sunflower seeds and soy or oat milk
- Herbs and lemon: added off heat to preserve flavor and nutrients; fresh basil and parsley make it bright
How to make this recipe (summary)
Blend the cream with soaked cashews, soy milk, and nutritional yeast until smooth.
Sauté onions in olive oil for 5 minutes, then add carrots, bell pepper, and sun-dried tomatoes; cook 10 minutes. Add garlic and spices, then stir in tomato paste and cook 5 minutes.
Simmer chickpeas and broth for 10 minutes.
Add gnocchi, cook 2 minutes, then stir in the cream. Finish with herbs, spinach, and lemon,
Stir to wilt, season to taste, and serve warm. View recipe card below for detailed instructions.
Variations and tips
- Gluten-free: To make it gluten-free, simply use GF gnocchi or swap for potatoes. If using potatoes, dice them into small cubes and add them at step 3 with the carrots. Make sure they’re cooked through before serving—the fork should slide in easily and the potato should just start to break apart.
I don’t recommend swapping for GF pasta if you’re storing leftovers or making this for meal prep. The texture doesn’t hold up well and tends to fall apart after a couple of days. Same for using broken lasagna sheets—they clump together and the texture isn’t great the next day. Can you tell I tried a lot of different versions of this soup? - Stretch out the leftovers: This one’s quite filling and can easily stretch to 5 servings, still giving you about 20 g of protein each. It’s super good with a side of crusty toasted bread.
- Spinach: If you’re using full-size spinach, chop it roughly. Frozen spinach works too.
- Reheat: When reheating, add a splash of water (about ¼ cup) and adjust the salt to taste, depending on the broth you used.
- Extra greens: stir in kale or finely chopped broccoli stems during the simmer
- Beans Swap: You can replace the chickpeas with butter beans, cannellini beans, great northern beans, or cooked black lentils. I wouldn’t use split red lentils here—the texture turns too mushy and dense.
- Season smart: The saltiness will depend a lot on the broth you use. I recommend going for a low-sodium option, and starting with just ½ tsp of sea salt flakes. You can always add more later, but you can’t take it back!
- Timing: This recipe is so easy, and it all comes together in one pot. The only trick is to follow the timing and let each set of veggies cook before adding the next—this helps them develop their full flavor.
Adding the fresh herbs, spinach, and lemon once the heat is turned off helps preserve their nutrients. If you’re meal prepping, place them on top of the soup in the container. They’ll cook gently when reheated, maximizing their texture and nutrients.
Why you’ll love this marry me chickpea soup TLDR
- One-pot comfort
- Protein-packed
- Fiber-rich
- Weeknight-easy
- Meal-prep friendly
FAQ
Is this recipe gluten-free?
Use certified gluten-free gnocchi, or swap gnocchi for small-diced potatoes cooked in the soup.
Can I make it nut-free?
Yes—replace cashews with sunflower seeds and use soy or oat milk.
How do I store leftovers?
Refrigerate in airtight containers for up to 5 days; add a splash of water (about 1/4 cup) when reheating and adjust salt.
Can I freeze this soup?
The texture of gnocchi can soften after freezing; for best results, freeze the soup without gnocchi and add fresh gnocchi when reheating. Or use potatoes
What can I use instead of chickpeas?
Butter beans, cannellini beans, great northern beans, or cooked black lentils all work beautifully. Avoid red lentils.
Can I skip the cashew cream?
I haven’t tried it without the cashew cream. I love the creaminess that it brings, but I think it would still be good without it. It would just have a stronger tomato flavor, and you might need to add more broth. You could also swap it for any store-bought cream that you like.
Can I skip or substitute the nutritional yeast?
Yes, you can skip the nutritional yeast if you like. It does add a little bit of a cheesy umami flavor, so you might want to add a bit more salt or other seasonings.
Can I use coconut milk instead of cashew cream?
I personally don’t always love coconut in a pasta-style dish because I find it a little sweet. This is just a personal preference, though, and a lot of people do enjoy it. Someone mentioned using coconut milk in our YouTube comment section with great results. If you love coconut, it should work.
Why isn’t my soup as creamy as the picture?
To get the creamy consistency, the cashews need to be blended completely until smooth with the milk to create a cream. Once the cream heats up it thickens and gives you the texture we want. If you have a high-speed blender, a quick blend is usually enough. Otherwise, make sure to soak the cashews in hot water first to soften them, and blend for longer until there are no visible bits left. This is tricky to achieve with a food processor.
What can I use instead of red peppers?
Cherry tomatoes or zucchini would be lovely as a substitute.
What gnocchi brand do you recommend?
I’m not specifically attached to any brand. I usually get San Remo, since that’s what’s available in my local supermarket.
Marry Me Chickpea Soup (Dairy-Free)
Creamy, cozy one-pot chickpea and gnocchi soup with dairy-free cashew cream, bright herbs, and lemon—simple steps, big flavor, perfect for weeknights and meal prep.
Equipment
- Large Pot
- cutting board
- chef’s knife
Ingredients
Cashew cream
- ⅓ cup (45 g) cashews
- ¾ cup (180 ml) dairy-free milk - I use soy
- ¼ cup (30 g) nutritional yeast
Soup
- 1½ tbsp (22 ml) olive oil - or water fry
- 2 yellow onions - finely diced
- 2 carrots - diced
- 1 red bell pepper - diced
- 3 oz (85 g) sun-dried tomatoes - sliced
- 6 cloves garlic - minced
- ⅓ cup (85 g) tomato paste
- 3 cups (490 g) cooked chickpeas - cooked
- 5 cups (1200 ml) low-sodium vegetable broth
- 9 oz (250 g) gnocchi
- ¼ cup (15 g) fresh parsley - finely chopped
- ½ cup (20 g) fresh basil - finely chopped
- 3 cups (90 g) baby spinach
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) fresh lemon juice
Spices
- 1 tbsp (6 g) smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp (10 g) garlic powder
- 1 tsp (1 g) dried thyme
- 1 tsp (1.8 g) chili flakes
- ½ tsp (3 g) sea salt flakes - more to taste
- 1 tsp (2 g) freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Prepare the cream: Soak the cashews in boiling water for 20 minutes (you can skip this step if using a high-speed blender such as a Vitamix). In a small blender, combine the cashews, milk, and nutritional yeast. Blend until perfectly smooth, then set aside.
- Make the soup: Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.
- Add the carrots, bell pepper, and sun-dried tomatoes. Cook for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the minced garlic, smoked paprika, garlic powder, dried thyme, chili flakes, salt, black pepper, and tomato paste. Stir well and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often.
- Add the chickpeas and vegetable broth. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
- Add the gnocchi and cook for 2 minutes, or until tender.
- Stir in the cream and simmer for another 2 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and add the parsley, basil, spinach, and lemon juice. Stir until the spinach is just wilted. Adjust salt and pepper to taste, and serve warm.
Notes
Gluten-free option: Use GF gnocchi or swap for potatoes. If using potatoes, dice them into small cubes and add them at step 3 with the carrots. Make sure they’re cooked through before serving—the fork should slide in easily and the potato should just start to break apart.
Salt: The saltiness will depend a lot on the broth you use. I recommend going for a low-sodium option and starting with just 1/2 tsp of sea salt flakes. You can always add more later.
Oil-free option: water fry the onions, and use dry-packed sun dried tomatoes
Video
Nutrition Information
Per Serving/Portion
Calories: 574 kcalCarbohydrates: 77 gProtein: 25 gFat: 22 gSodium: 627 mgFiber: 18 gVitamin A: 685 IUVitamin C: 93 mgCalcium: 233 mgIron: 9 mg
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This was absolutely delicious, thank you!
Hey Elena, thank you so much for sharing. I’m so happy you loved it 💚
Made my take on this and I think it tastes amazing. Swapped out gnocchi for potato, spinach for kale, did a 50:50 ratio of chickpeas and white beans, used spring onion and chives in place of yellow onions and garlic. I forgot to buy cashews so used what I had on hand (light cooking cream).
That looks absolutely beautiful Anne! I love how you used what was available to you. I particularly love the half chickpea and half white beans, fantastic way to sneak in some extra plant diversity without extra effort! Thank you so much for sharing your tips with everyone 💚
My mom loves this soup and so do I. I love that it’s so versatile–as long as you get the basic structure of the soup right it’s completely possible to sub in things you have sitting around in the fridge. When I made it the first time I used celery as one of the aromatics instead of bell pepper, and when I made it today, I used chard in place of the spinach. A truly lovely recipe.
Hey Mel, so happy you and your mom love it. I love the substitution you made, and I totally agree there is lots of room to add any bits and pieces of veggies that you have in the fridge in there. Thanks for sharing. Have a beautiful day 💚
Amazing! Flavors are on point. Didn’t change a thing. Make sure to use a blender or (emersion blender like I did if you have one) the soup will be very creamy and well blended with no cashew chunks.
Hi April! Thank you for sharing your tips; that looks so delicious! So happy you loved it!
Delicious tasting soup!
So happy you liked it, thanks for sharing, Sandra!
This recipe is fantastically delish! I used fresh kale instead of spinach.
So happy you loved it! Kale would be so good in this, thank you for sharing 💚
This was DELICIOUS. Definitely a meal that’s being added to our rotation. A soup for the soul. I made a few small changes because I didn’t have everything- I didn’t make cashew crème ( but I can see how it would be a delicious add-on) I just used half milk and half cream to cut down on some calories. I also used about 1/2 cup of finely cut broccoli stems to add some extra fiber and because I didn’t have any spinach on hand. I added an extra carrot and an extra half of a red pepper for some more veggies. These small additions did make it thick but I just added some water and it was all good. Definitely worth making!!!
Thank you so much for sharing all your tips, it’s so helpful 💚 So happy you loved it 💚
Delicious. Not quite a creamy as the picture ( not sure why) but still super nice. Also used my home grown herbs which is even better!
Hi Inga, I’m so glad you loved the recipe! Home grown herbs make everything better 😍
In the photo I can see what looks like tiny bits of cashews. To get the creamy consistency, the cashews need to be blended completely until smooth with the milk to create a cream. Once the cream heats up it thickens and gives you the texture we want. If you have a high speed blender, a quick blend is usually enough, but otherwise make sure to soak the cashews in hot water first to soften them and blend for longer until there are no visible bits left. This is tricky to achieve with a food processor. This exact issue actually happened to me last week when I made some at a friend’s place with a weaker blender than what I’m used to 😅
Thank you so much for your reply. It was still so delicious even though not blended enough. I m looking forward to trying more recipes. 😊
Can’t wait to hear what you try next Inga 💚
This soup fills your soul!
So happy you liked it! Thank you for your review Niki 💚
This was absolutely delicious, thank you!
So happy you liked it, thank you for sharing Jenny 💚
Je suis une amoureuse des soupes. J’ai toujours au moins 2 soupes pour la semaine. Celle-ci arrive sur ma liste courte, et je l’ai cuisinée déjà trois fois en 1 mois. Fabulous! Merci énormément!
Wow merci beaucoup Anouk pour cette super review 💚
Not normally a soup guy, but this was DELICIOUS 🤤
This was absolutely delicious! I used tomato sauce instead of paste, but it was still amazing. It has such a cozy, homey, autumn feel — it would be perfect for the holidays too!