So last weekend I was in Victoria, home of some of the best gluten-free and vegan eats in the province (although with places like Bandidas and The Wallflower, Vancouver is still definitely in the race). But anyway, I was at Santé Gluten-Free café (which is on Quadra near Hillside, and I recommend it to anyone gluten-free in Victoria - lots of dairy-free options too!), and I noticed that in their frozen soup section, they had a coconut-kale blended soup. Well, this sounded like pretty much the greatest thing ever, so I made a mental note to try making it as soon as I had a chance. I did a bit of googling for recipe suggestions, but mostly put together a soup with what I already had on hand. The end result was a creamy, rich deliciousness that I haven't experienced since I could have potato-leek soup with real cream. I am in soup heaven. (And to think that two years ago I was convinced that I could never make a decent pot of soup.) Plus, in addition to two bunches of kale, the soup is also full of red lentils, for protein and fiber, and sweet potatoes, which have a shockingly high number of nutrients. So it's delicious AND healthy! (Except for the coconut cream, anyway...)
Coconut-Kale-Lentil-Sweet Potato Soup
I apologize in advance that there really aren't a whole lot of proportions in this recipe. It was completely eyeballed and pretty haphazard, especially on liquid ratios (I always figured I could add more liquid if I needed to).
2 small onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
Small hunk of ginger, chopped (probably 1 tsp?)
Generous dose of garam masala
A few good shakes each of cumin and coriander
A few shakes of red pepper flakes, to preference
Salt and pepper
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped (I definitely used yellow sweet potatoes, not orange yams, which gave it a very creamy potato-soup texture. But I don't think yams would necessarily make a bad soup, just a different consistency)
A generous helping of red lentils (1/2 cup? I'm really not sure), rinsed
~3/4 of a can coconut milk (I used full-fat, and it definitely contributed to the heavenly creaminess. If using light, I would recommend using a whole can)
Water (probably about 1.5-2 cups? Again, completely eyeballed to mostly cover the sweet potatoes . I'd err on the side of less, and add more at the blending stage if it's too thick)
1 1/2 bunches kale, stems removed + 1/2 bunch kale, stems removed and diced
1 dash rice vinegar (although I'm sure any other type of vinegar would work)
Sauté the onion, garlic and ginger until softish. Add spices, sweet potatoes, and lentils, and sauté 1-2 minutes. Add coconut milk and water. Bring to a boil and then simmer on low heat until lentils and sweet potatoes are mostly cooked through. Add the 1 1/2 bunches kale, and simmer until sweet potatoes are totally soft and kale is somewhat wilted.
Purée soup in a food processor (or blender). I found my soup was surprisingly thin, but it will vary depending on how much water is used.
Put the soup back on the heat, and adjust spices to taste. Add the 1/2 bunch of diced kale and heat until wilted. Add the dash of rice vinegar and stir to combine.
I found that while good hot, this soup was also remarkably tasty when lukewarm (and possibly will also be delicious cold, it hasn't cooled down enough for me to tell). The soup will likely be a lot thicker cold, because of the coconut milk.
This recipe made 1 bowl + 2 medium sized yoghurt containers of soup.
No comments:
Post a Comment