Name: Spicy Swede Soup with Ginger
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: Seasonal
Ingredients: 1 yellow onion; 1 garlic clove; a little olive oil; 2 stalks celery; 3 medium white potatoes; 3 large carrots; 1 large swede; 1 thumb-size piece of fresh ginger; 2 vegetable stock cubes; 600-800ml water; salt/pepper to taste; dairy-free yogurt; chilli flakes

This delicious & Spicy Swede Soup with Ginger is a perfect mid-week dinner! Quick and easy to make and a great way to get those healthy veg in.

What if I told you that I had never cooked with swede before this week? Haha, yes me! I’ve somehow had a good gut feeling when I spontaneously whipped up this Spicy Swede Soup with Ginger and took notes of the recipe – which I can now luckily share with you all here!

I’ve received my first swedes as part of a veg box subscription for the first time. As fresh fruit and veg has become a little rare these past few weeks (due to the coronavirus crisis) I’ve been very grateful that I’ve found a veg box service still accepting new customers (or so many places didn’t anymore!). Alongside a lot of other veg, I’ve received a delicious swede in my delivery – and as I recall seeing people making soup from swedes, I thought it’d be a great first dish to try out.

What you need

Ingredients

Veg

This recipe is loaded with delicious & healthy veg! Besides the swede and potato (as you can guess from the title

!) I’ve added carrots, celery, onion & garlic.

Ginger

A great natural anti-oxidant with great immune properties! The ginger is what gives this soup recipe a delicious spice. Don’t worry, the soup won’t turn out super spicy, but have a nice tang instead. If you’re super sensitive to spice however, you can reduce the amount of ginger used in the recipe, if you like. Serving the soup with a dollop of yogurt on top also helps balance the spice!

Vegetable Stock

For the liquid soup base I’m using vegetable stock. I personally didn’t have to add any additional salt or pepper to the recipe as it already turned. out pretty delicious and well-balanced, but best season the soup to your personal taste with sea salt and black pepper at the end.

Equipment

large saucepan
blender

How to make Spicy Swede Soup with Ginger

This recipe is very straight forward and ready in just a few easy steps:

Start by heating a little olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat whilst you’re roughly chopping up your onions and garlic. Add them to the pan and whilst they’re becoming fragrant, peel and cube the swede, potatoes and carrots. Roughly chop the celery stalks and add all the veg to the pan.

Next, add all the liquids. I like to crumble up my stock cubes and then cover them with the water. Cook everything until all the veg are soft, this will roughly take about 20 minutes.

Transfer the contents of your saucepan to a blender and blend the soup until smooth. If you like it chunky, you can also blend only half the soup and leave the rest chunky – completely down to you! I like my soup super smooth, so I usually blend it for 3-4 minutes.

Keep the soup warm on the stove until ready to serve.

I’ve served my soup with some delicious plain Nush Foods yogurt, Tiba Tempeh Sweet Chilli Tempeh, chilli flakes and hemp seeds (for some healthy omega fats & a crunch!)

Variations for this recipe

No onion/garlic: If you’re avoiding onion and garlic, you. can easily leave these out from the recipe. As they’re holding a lot of flavour however, it’d. be wise to replace them with another flavourful ingredient to balance out the dish. Here are some ideas: balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, truffle oil, apple pieces.
No celery: If you’re avoiding celery, simply leave it out and replace it with either onion or another type of veg.
If you’re missing any one of the veg ingredients, simply replace the amount with one of the other veg used in the recipe.
Love it extra spicy? Add chilli flakes before blending the soup OR a spritz of sriracha sauce.
Want to make the soup even healthier? Add fresh or dried turmeric before blending the soup. Don’t forget to also add a little black pepper for better absorption of the curcumin!
Want it super creamy? Add 1 tin of coconut milk, before blitzing up the soup. Delicious & more-ish!
More flavour? No problem – how about adding a tablespoon of your favourite curry powder?

This recipe is:

100% vegan
easy to make
kid friendly
delicious for the entire family
a wonderful mid-week dinner
warming
healthy
including multiple ones of your 5 a day
anti-inflammatory
loaded with healthy veg
naturally gluten-free
delicious served with fried tempeh, yogurt, chilli flakes and hemp seeds
ready in 30 minutes or less