Spicy Vegetable Sour Soup (Vegan)

This vegetable sour soup packs many different flavors and aromas but for me, the fact that it’s spicy, sweet and sour, all in the same time, makes it a winner all year round.

This simple vegetable soup is my take on the classical Romanian sour soup that I grew up with as a child. My mother used to cook this type of soup for me, in different variations, all of them being sweet and sour. What can I tell you? We have a big sour soup tradition in Romania.

There’s a lot to like about this delicious sour soup. It’s:

Loaded with different vegetables
Packed with plenty of healthy fiber
And plenty of “good-for-you” nutrients too
Spicy and a bit Sweet
& Has that special Sour taste that I grew up with
Very easy to make, basically a one-pot recipe
Literally a soup to die for!

Ingredients needed

Here’s a basic list of all the ingredients that you’ll need for cooking this Spicy Vegetable Sour Soup. It may look like a lot (especially if you haven’t cooked a soup like this before) but rest assured, this soup comes together quite easily.

As always, you can find the full recipe with instructions and print options below!

Ingredients for this soup:

• sweet potato
• frozen vegetables mix (green peas, carrots, cauliflower)
• frozen broccoli
• frozen green beans
• celery stick
• red onion
• garlic
• leeks
• bell pepper
• bay leaves
• white and black pepper
• fresh basil
• lemon (only fresh juice)
• lime (only fresh juice)
• Himalayan salt
• water

How to cook Spicy Vegetable Sour Soup

This soup comes together quite easily and doesn’t require any kind of special prep work. In fact, for the most part of the ingredients list, you’ll be using frozen vegetables and this simply means less time spent in the kitchen.

Here’s how you cook this delicious sour soup:

1. Start by preparing the vegetables: peel, chop or slice them as needed.
2. Add all the veggies into your cooking pot, including white and black pepper, bay leaves and fresh basil.
3. Cover everything with water (1-2 cm on top of the veggies) and bring to a boil.
4. Cook on medium heat for about 20 min, or until the hard vegetables become tender.
5. Add lemon and lime juice, together with Himalayan salt. Use a wooden spoon to mix it into the soup.
6. Let the soup simmer for 5-10 minutes until it develops that characteristic sour taste
7. That’s it! Remove from heat, and serve as is or with 1-2 tbsp of full fat sour cream added into each soup bowl. Enjoy!

Cooking Tips

• The ingredients list may look a bit long but don’t worry because this recipe is basically a one-pot recipe with a small twist at the end.
• Most of the veggies I used were frozen and I simply added them into the soup pot without defrosting. That works very well for this recipe, plus it saves precious time.
• Using bay leaves and basil is a must because they bring a lot of flavor to this soup. Their flavors will leave your kitchen smelling very nice during cooking and even after you’ve finished cooking.
• This soup is all about combining flavors. For instance, all the vegetables that we used are complimented by the spicy taste that you get from using garlic, leeks and onions together.
• This recipe makes for 10-12 medium portions so it’s perfect if you have guests or if you’re like me and you love your soup.
• In order to enrich the flavor and texture of this sour soup, you can serve it with 1-2 tbsp of full fat sour cream added to your soup bowl. This is a must try, believe me!

How to serve this delicious sour soup

I like serving it on its own or with at a source of healthy fats. You can successfully pair this soup with things like:

• avocado
• walnuts
• coconut cream
• full-fat sour cream (vegetarian)
• brie or camembert (vegetarian)
• cheddar cheese (vegetarian)

All of these sources of protein and healthy fats will enrich the flavor of what is a very special sour soup. As always, keep in mind that a sour soup can be paired with many things and you can definitely add your favorites here (how about using a slice of freshly baked bread?).

Be creative and serve this soup with ingredients that make you happy!

If you cook this recipe, please let me know how it turned out. And if you share a picture on Instagram, don’t forget @refreshmyhealth so I can see what you’ve made. Cheers soup lover!

Other soup recipe you might enjoy

More soups to keep you warm and happy? I’ve got you covered!

• Start with my Healthy Onion Potato Mug Soup since it’s so easy to make and will warm you up in no time.
• How about this wonderful yellow cream soup: Simple Sweet Potato Cream Soup?
• Here’s another yellow cream soup: Porcini Mushrooms and Veggies Cream Soup
• I also love this Spicy Colorful Veggies Sour Soup since it’s loaded with all sorts of plants and so hot.

Enjoy them all and let me know what you think!