This Spicy Vegetable Sour Soup is a bit spicy with a distinct turmeric taste, and can be served on its own or together with a selection of Greek olives, French brie and 1-2 tsp of crème fraîche. It’s tasty and healthy, but don’t take my word for it and try it yourself!
Soup can be a great way to include more plants in your diet, and this recipe makes no exception from this simple rule. Talking about myself, whenever I start working on a new soup (especially now since I’m cooking without meat), I always make sure that my soup will end up having plenty of healthy fiber. This automatically means that it has to include as many different vegetables as possible, and cruciferous vegetables work great for this purpose.
Cooking the best vegan sour soup
I always start a soup with some of my favorite vegetables, and to make things even simple I like to buy them frozen. These days you can easily find frozen broccoli, cauliflower, green beans or green peas, in any season; as a bonus they also cook faster so they are a win-win for me.
Broccoli, cauliflower and sweet potatoes are one of the best ways to make sure that your soup will have enough “texture” (aka fiber). Carrots and green beans are also popular in my soup recipes, as well as bell peppers, celery and fennel.
One of my best-kept secrets (well, not anymore!) is making sure that my recipe includes at least two of the following allium vegetables: garlic, leeks, onion, shallots, scallions, or chives. The vegetables from the allium family are loaded with potent phytonutrients, not to mention vitamins and minerals; they will literally upgrade your soup to a whole new level. They’re simply good for you and you should eat them as often as possible.
One last thing, our spicy sour soup can’t be complete without spices. For this recipe we’ll use fresh chili, black pepper, turmeric powder, ginger powder and bay leaves. I’ve also included Himalayan salt plus my special lemon and lime fresh juice (this helps with the sour taste of the soup).
Serving this vegan sour soup
This recipe is vegan by itself, and you can keep it this way. As a vegan meal, you can serve it by itself or with a few olives, a few slices of avocado or a handful of your favorite nuts (I like walnuts or pecans). On the other hand, if you’re a vegetarian, you can also add brie, camembert or crème fraîche (this is a must try with sour soup).
Quick Tip: Vegetarians only, for an extra special culinary experience add 1-2 tsp of crème fraîche to one bowl of sour soup. This little trick will transform this soup into a culinary experience like no other (or at least this is what I think). Try it and let me know what you think!
If you make this soup, let me know how it turned out! Leave a comment and don’t forget to take a picture and tag it #refreshmyhealth on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
What’s your favorite soup recipe? Have you served sour soup before and did you liked it? Let me know in the comments.
Spicy Colorful Veggies Sour Soup
Ingredients
- 2 sweet potatoes (peeled, cubed)
- 500 g frozen vegetables mix (broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, green beans)
- 1 red bell pepper (chopped)
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 onions (sliced)
- 1 stick celery (sliced)
- 2-3 slices fennel (sliced)
- 1 chili pepper (chopped)
- black pepper (to taste)
- 1-2 tsp turmeric + ginger powder
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 lemon (juice only)
- 1 lime (juice only)
- 2 tsp Himalayan salt
- water
Instructions
- Prepare all the ingredients as indicated: peep, slice, chop.
- In a soup pot (I used a 5L Le Creuset) add all solid ingredients without spices: sweet potatoes, frozen veggies (broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, green beans), red bell pepper, garlic, onion, celery, fennel.
- Continue by adding black pepper, turmeric powder, ginger powder and bay leaves.
- Add enough water to cover the ingredients and a bit more.
- Bring to a boil and cook on medium heat for about 15-20 min, until all the veggies are soft enough.
- When the veggies are cooked, it’s time to add lemon and lime juice, as well as salt.
- Mix everything using a wooden spoon and let it cook for about 5 more minutes.
- Once the lemon juice has incorporated into the soup and the soup has a sweet and sour taste, that’s when you’ll know the soup is done.
- That was it! Remove from heat and enjoy your hot bowl of sour soup.
