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Hi! I’m back! And today I bring you my Vegan Purple Winter Soup with Kale and Chickpeas. It’s super easy to make and honestly all you have to do is make sure to follow the instructions and salt to taste throughout the whole process. The purple color comes from the rainbow carrots. So don’t substitute or else you’ll lose that beautiful purple color!
But before we get into it, I had to share with y’all my past week. It was…really freaking awful. Aside from moments of fun with friends in the snow, it was pretty stressful. I was actually pretty lucky to get my last blog post up because after our first power outage, there was no going back.
I know my blog is still in its infancy but it’s been the longest I’ve been away. I went for a while without electricity this past week and when I did have electricity, the blog was obviously the last thing on my mind. I mean…we don’t have a gas stove (and have no intention of getting one) and we had absolutely no heat when the power was out. Stuff needed to be addressed.
Now we’re actually looking into some major home repairs to beef up our home but without incurring any extra debt. Ever since the pandemic, we’ve had stuff go wrong and we’ve been so hesitant to have people in our home. The only time we had people come in was when our range finally gave out at the beginning and after months of using a tabletop induction stove, we finally gave in and ordered an induction range. And one of the delivery workers had their mask falling off, nostrils exposed. Yikes!
I digress.
I had multiple drafts of this post, with a more detailed, personal experience of the past week in Portland, Oregon but I think it’s best left for my own private journal. But I do write a little about it below. I had what I think was a sugar-induced migraine yesterday so today I’m still somewhat recovering. So apologies for any errors in this post or the recipe itself…since I’m still somewhat out of it!
Oregon went through an awful winter storm. Not as bad as Texas obviously but it was beyond crappy. What started out as fun in the snow became increasingly stressful as our area experienced multiple power outages which left people without heat and food. We even had a live power line incident in our immediate neighborhood that could’ve really hurt people and I’m immensely grateful that everyone is still alive.
Fortunately, everyone had water (from what I know) and our hardships were only a fraction as to what people in Texas are still reeling from. I ended up donating to multiple Texas nonprofits and a mutual aid fund before anything in Oregon because it was clear that they were suffering way more than we were.
Without giving into toxic positivity, I gotta say that I’m incredibly thankful to all my neighbors who came out for one another this past week. From offering their front porches with electricity hookups to gas camping stoves to straight up food. Not only that but donating to people’s Venmo accounts so they could look out for houseless people and animals. I did that too but honestly I did it kind of late for the reason I stated above. I’ve had neighbors give me 5 propane gas canisters and my next door neighbors offer to heat up water for us. I can’t even list how many people helped us the past week and with how many things because it’s just going to overwhelm me (with gratitude too of course). And yes, I did help neighbors with stuff but I don’t feel the need to list everything I did because, well, I’m honestly just physically and mentally exhausted.
I have a good community. All in all, I’m okay. My family is okay. My community is okay.
So…onto the recipe.
This Vegan Purple Winter Soup with Kale and Chickpeas is perfect for winter. It’s hearty, easy to make and has complex flavors. It’s super easy though so I’m not writing an incredibly detailed, step-by-step narrative since we have our recipe card at the bottom. As usual, it’s important to salt to taste throughout the whole process.
We start off by parcooking our single russet potato by poking holes around the potato and microwaving it for 3-4 minutes. Peeling is optional and I generally don’t peel because I’m a busy mom and I have stuff to do.
While the potato is cooking, we prep our other vegetables by rinsing anything that needs to be rinsed and then peeling and cutting accordingly.
When we’re done prepping the other vegetables, the potato should have cooled down in the microwave by then. We roughly chop the potato in one inch cubes.
We start to cook the whole spices first and then the aromatics and ground spices at separate times. Then everything else is added gradually.
We add the carrots, potatoes and the kale gradually and it should look like this:
Next part is adding the legumes. For our legumes we use good ol’ canned, organic chickpeas.
Make sure to save the aquafaba for future baking by putting it in an airtight container and storing it in the fridge.
After the chickpeas have been added, this is what it should look like:
So freaking colorful! But we’re not done yet. We are going to add four cups of water then bring it to a boil so that we can simmer it for 10 minutes. And after we’re done simmering it, we add the baby spinach which we let wilt as the soup cooks on low for the last 5 minutes. When done, we get the following:
I like to add good olive oil and fresh cracked peppercorn on top.
I also like to eat this soup with toasted bread. My husband prefers ciabatta or sourdough whereas my kiddo prefers croissants.
So that’s it! Just make sure to salt to taste because this is not a bland soup. It has way too many spices and aromatics to be so. Hope you enjoy this recipe!
PrintVegan Purple Winter Soup with Kale and Chickpeas
Easy and comforting vegan purple winter soup with kale, chickpeas, rainbow carrots and russet potato. Cooked in both ground and whole spices and aromatics such as garlic, red onion and fresh ginger.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 40
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- 1 whole russet potato
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1 large yellow onion
- 55g of ginger (about an inch long)
- 3 ribs of celery
- 1 bunch of curly kale
- 3 teaspoons of salt, divided
- ½ teaspoon of ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon of yellow mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon of nutmeg
- 10 oz bag of sliced, frozen rainbow carrots
- Big handful of baby spinach – about 2.5 cups packed
- Apple cider vinegar to taste (for me, it was 3 teaspoons)
- 4 cups of water
- Toasted bread for serving (see notes)
- Good olive oil for serving
- Fresh cracked black peppercorns for serving
Instructions
- Brush, rinse and dry the russet potato well. Poke holes all around using a fork and microwave for 3-4 minutes.
- While the potato is par cooking in the microwave, rinse the rest of the vegetables that need rinsing like the kale and celery. Then dry.
- Peel and roughly chop the ginger root, garlic and yellow onion.
- Slice the celery into roughly ¼” half moon slices.
- Tear the kale away from the stems and tear them into pieces that are roughly an inch or two all around.
- Take the unpeeled potato, if cool enough, out of the microwave and roughly chop into 1-1.5 inch cubes. If any skin comes off, no big deal.
- Bring a large pot to medium heat. Add olive oil.
- When olive oil is hot, cook the fennel seeds and mustard seeds until they start to crackle at about 2 minutes.
- Add garlic, nutmeg, ginger and cook for another 1-2 minutes until aromatic.
- Add the onions and celery along with a teaspoon of the salt and cook for 1 minute again.
- Add the potatoes and another teaspoon of salt and cook for roughly 2 minutes.
- Add the frozen carrots and toss ingredients around in the pot to roughly coat with the oil. Then add a few tablespoons of water (you can use a dinner spoon, this part isn’t complicated) and cover to steam for about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the kale and a couple of spoonfuls of water again and let steam for another 2-3 minutes
- Add the chickpeas, 4 cups of water , apple cider vinegar and a teaspoon of salt again. Bring to a boil and immediately simmer with lid on the pot, almost fully covered, allowing for steam to escape, for 10 minutes. Stir periodically.
- Add a huge handful (about 2.5 cups packed) of the baby spinach and let cook on low for another 5 minutes, steaming the spinach.
- Take an immersion blender and blend for a few seconds to thicken the soup.
- Salt to taste.
- Serve in bowls and top with a good olive oil.
- Cut some bread of any kind into thick strips for dipping and toast.
Notes
- To keep it easy, I just toast whatever bread we have around. I prefer a more tame bread or as someone would say, “basic” or “boring” or “bland” so that I can taste more of the soup. When it comes to store-bought bread, I prefer Dave’s Killer Bread. My husband prefers fresh sourdough or ciabatta. My little lady prefers fluffier breads like croissants.
- If you want to make this even more soupy, just add more water until you get the desired consistency you want. Just remember to salt to taste as it will dilute the other flavors a bit. This should not a bland soup.
