Soup Season!
Fall is my favorite time of year. Despite the shorter days, I look forward to the cooler temperatures, which means hoodie season, and also soup season. Cooking meals at home can be an impactful individual action for more sustainable living. You can better control your own food waste, use the ingredients you have in recipes, and even convert food scraps into something for future use, like broth. Since meat production is a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions (source: https://drawdown.org/insights/how-much-beef-is-too-much-for-climate), finding vegetarian or vegan recipes to incorporate into your rotation will supercharge this individual action.
When I am looking for recipes, I have a few requirements that I like to try to meet.
Ideally a one-pot recipe
Short prep time (10-20 min)
Customizable (which soup recipes usually are)
This week, I found three soup recipes to try out that achieve these requirements. Some of the ingredients, like tomatoes, peppers, and kale, we grow in our garden. Other ingredients can be bought in bulk, like rice and beans. Although these three recipes share some of the same ingredients, they all have very distinctive flavors.
Vegetarian Pumpkin Chili
I first heard of putting pumpkin in chili a few years ago. If you usually have a soupier chili, a can of pure pumpkin will thicken it up. The recipe calls for sweet potato, but I left it out when I made it this week.
I’m not sure why this recipe is labeled vegetarian and not vegan, but I usually include a little bit of cheese in my chili so at least for me that label fits.
Recipe link: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/vegetarian-pumpkin-chili/
Vegan Chickpea Rice Soup
This is very reminiscent of traditional chicken and rice soup. I’ve made something similar to this before and include soy curls to mimic chicken. It really doesn’t need it though. Also, I’m not a fan of the texture of celery, so I left that out, but included some celery seed in the spices.
Recipe link: https://www.veganricha.com/vegan-chickpea-rice-soup/
Peanut Stew with Squash, Chickpeas, and Kale
This recipe is inspired by West African peanut stews, and calls for a cup of peanut butter. With jalapeños and the optional harissa, this could be as spicy as you want it, or leave those out if you don’t want it spicy.
Recipe link:
https://www.mondaycampaigns.org/meatless-monday/recipes/peanut-stew-with-squash-chickpeas-and-kale
If you try any of these recipes, let us know what you think, or add your favorite soup recipe in the comments. Happy Soup Season!