Spicy Kale Soup with Roasted Pepper is a vegan festival of flavors! It bursts with fresh, bright and deep flavors that will have you spooning bowl after bowl.
This Spicy Kale Soup is packed with nutrients and flavor -- and it's unbelievably hearty and beautiful!
Seriously, this combination of ingredients, along with a fairly easy cooking process, makes this soup a winner for sure.
Recipe Tips and Substitutions
- The recipe calls for Curly kale, but if you have another variety you like, go for it.
- I use Russet potatoes in this recipe, but Yukon Golds would also be delicious.
- I like the subtle sweetness in red onions, but yellow or white onions are great also.
- This particular soup is best blended in a blender because kale is fibrous, and we want it to be very smooth.
- If the soup is thicker than you like, you can add a bit more vegetable stock.
- Spicy Kale Soup will vary in color for everyone! Don't expect it to look exactly like my photos. Here's why.
Can you freeze it?
Yes you can. Once it's completely cooled to room temperature, pour the soup into an airtight container. It can be frozen up to one month. To defrost, put the soup in the refrigerator 2 days before you want to reheat it. (Although it freezes pretty well, the soup is best eaten shortly after it's made.)
I hope you love this tasty and healthy Spicy Kale Soup as much as I do.

Spicy Kale Soup with Roasted Pepper
Ingredients
- olive oil for the pan
- 1 cup red onion, roughly chopped
- 2½ teaspoons garlic, roughly chopped
- 1½ cups Idaho Russet potatoes, peeled, roughly chopped
- ½ 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
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¾ to 1 pound curly kale, washed and dried, thick stems removed, roughly chopped
- ½ cup dry sherry
- 6 cups vegetable stock
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
Instructions
- 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, ¼ 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 is fibrous. (Please note that when you blend hot liquids in the blender, you have to hold down the lid firmly. If you don't, the hot liquid, vibration and steam might force the lid off. It's good to 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 is soup blended, return it to the stock pot. Add the vinegar and sugar and season very generously to taste with salt and pepper. (Here's How to Season to Taste.)
- Drizzle a bit of extra virgin olive oil over each served bowl of soup and top each one with a few of the remaining sun-dried tomatoes.
Notes
Cooking On The Weekends is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Lana
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:)
valentina
oh Lana, thank you so much! Come, move in! 😉
Sophie
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!
valentina
thanks, Sophie! 😀
Jeanne @JollyTomato
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! : )
valentina
thanks, jeanne! i can only hope my boys will eat kale one day! 😉
Sylvia @ Peaches and Donuts
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!
valentina
thanks so much, Sylvia!
Shawn @ I Wash...You Dry
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! 🙂
Aimee
Looks soooo good!
Lori @ RecipeGirl
I absolutely adore Kale! This looks like a good way to use it! Delicious 🙂
valentina
thanks, Lori! it's delicious! 🙂
Aubin
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!
valentina
Aubin -- so happy you made this! And that you loved it! Oven roasted tomatoes are a great addition! 🙂
yrsqrtr
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.
valentina
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. 🙂
steelcitykitchen
This was amazing, I've got tons of kale growing in the garden and have just made it tonight - I loved it, thank you for the recipe!
valentina
Oh I'm so happy you tried this recipe! It's one of my favorites! Thank YOU! 🙂
John
Just love this recipe, but my wife is a diabetic and needs a carb count per serving for her insulin pump, would appreciate any information.
Thanks,
John
valentina
Hi John, thanks for checking out my recipes! I'm sorry but don't have the nutritional info on hand.
John
Thanks!
jennifer
made this tonight!! my taste buds are singing!! thanks for the inspiration!
valentina
Jennifer, so happy it was a hit! 🙂 Thanks for being one of my readers!