Yesterday when I went to buy some of my favorite chocolate bars, I was a bit distracted because of the “health food faire,” the grocery store was hosting. Not exactly what I want around me when I’m buying my chocolate! I did however manage to squeeze past the throng of fitness trainers, vitamin reps, and all sorts of “healthy” salespeople. In the end, my mission was a success: I walked out with three giant bars of chocolate and no business cards.
Later, having eaten quite a bit of the delicious chocolate, I decided to whip up my own version of health food. Yes, this is healthy, but flavor comes first!
My spicy kale soup is vegan, packed with nutrients and flavor — and it’s unbelievably hearty and beautiful!
I love having a pot of soup simmering on the stove on a weekend afternoon. It’s comforting (and makes the whole house smell good)!
Recipe
Serves 6
Total Prep and Cooking Time: 1 hour
Active Work Time: about 30 minutes
Olive oil for the pan
1 cup roughly chopped red onion
2 medium-sized roughly chopped garlic cloves, roots and stems removed
1-1/2 cups peeled and roughly chopped Idaho Russet potatoes
1/2 cup marinated and drained sun-dried tomatoes, divided
1 cup roughly chopped, roasted red pepper (here’s how to roast a pepper)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 large bunches curly kale, washed, dried, center stems removed and roughly chopped
1/2 cup dry sherry
6 cups vegetable stock
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil
Coat a large stock pot with olive oil and place it over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is soft and beginning to brown, about 7 minutes.
Add the potato, 1/4 cup of the sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red pepper, paprika, cayenne, and the kale. Cook this mixture until the kale has wilted. All of the ingredients should be starting to brown and to sticking to the bottom of the pan — it will take about 10 minutes. Then deglaze the pan with the sherry. Use a straight edged, wooden spatula to scrape any bits of food off the bottom of the pan and back into the mixture.
Once the sherry has evaporated completely, add the vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, cover the pot, and then reduce to a very low simmer. Simmer the soup for about 30 minutes. (At this point the potatoes should be very tender.)
Pour the soup into a blender and blend on high until it’s completely smooth.
(This particular soup is much better blended this way than with an immersion blender, because kale can be quite fibrous. Please note that when you blend hot liquids in the blender, you have to hold down the lid very, very firmly! If you don’t do this, the hot liquid, the vibration, and the steam will force the lid off! Also, use a folded towel to protect your hands from the possibility of hot liquid seeping out of the lid during blending. If this makes you at all nervous, let the soup cool to room temperature, and then blend.)
Once the soup blended, return it to the stock pot. Add the vinegar and sugar and season very generously to taste with salt and pepper.
Drizzle a bit of the extra virgin olive oil over each served bowl of soup and top each one with a few of the remaining sun-dried tomatoes.
Timeline:
1 hour ahead: Chop all the ingredients and begin making the soup.
If you make the soup ahead of time, let it cool to room temp and store it in the refrigerator in an air-tight container. Reheat it on the stove by brining it to a quick boil and then reducing it to a simmer. (You might need to add a bit more stock to thin it a bit.)
Note:
Please make sure you read my instructions about blending the soup!
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I just love your recipes! I usually pass by curly kale, looking for the other kind, but now I can buy the poor neglected kind:) I always have roasted peppers on hand (and I roast them myself). Maybe it’s time to invest in one of those enormous jars of sun-dried tomatoes from Costco!
I should just move in with you until I am done with losing weight:) AS it is not really possible, I’ll have to be satisfied with making your recipes:)
oh Lana, thank you so much! Come, move in!
What a divine kicking good for you soup! Yum!
I love roasted peppers a lot! That’s a divine roasted flavour! And I love kale too!
MMMMMM,…Valentina!
thanks, Sophie!
OK, I NEED some of this soup right now! It’s cloudy and cold over here.
We are going through a little love affair with kale at our house. The boys will actually eat (and enjoy) kale chips. So I’m thinking that maybe I could expand their palates with a little bit of this soup too (maybe with a little less spice). It looks great! : )
thanks, jeanne! i can only hope my boys will eat kale one day!
This is such a heart-warming bowl of soup, perfect for the weather we are having over here. Lovely addition to my other soup recipes!
thanks so much, Sylvia!
OH BOY! I love spicy food and this soup looks like a dish my husband and I would both really enjoy!
PS- Just signed up for Camp Blogaway, and I can’t wait to meet ya!
Looks soooo good!
I absolutely adore Kale! This looks like a good way to use it! Delicious
thanks, Lori! it’s delicious!
I just made this soup this evening and it was fantastic! Although I had to use oven roasted tomatoes instead of sun dried It came out better than expected! I also chopped my kale in a food processor first before adding to soup then just used my immersion blender It worked like a charm! Thanks again for this fantastic addition to my repertoire!
Aubin — so happy you made this! And that you loved it! Oven roasted tomatoes are a great addition!
I made this tonight for dinner. The flavor was excellent but the color was more dark green/brown. In your pictures it appears to have a more reddish coloring. I used not quite two large bunches of kale and the amounts of all other ingredients that were listed. I used my Vitamix to blend the soup. Any ideas? It was delicious and we will make it again. I’d just like the color to be more like yours.
Thank you for a fantastic recipe.
I’m so happy you made the soup — and that it was delicious! As for the color, I think everyone’s ingredients can vary a bit. . . how red are the peppers are, the brand of SD tomatoes, etc. My suspicion is that the stock varies the most — some veg stocks are darker/richer in color than others. I think I used a homemade stock for this — Try using the veg broth from Trader Joe’s — It’s pretty good, and I think it might help bring the color you desire.