And….we’re back! After a few weeks off for bad behavior and a new ACL, I’m glad to be back. I’ve had my eye on this recipe for a few weeks now. It is sweet, savory, smooth and lumpy (in the best chickpea way). It’s sure to keep you full and warm when battling the winter chills. The original recipe calls for farro from Cookie + Kate but since I didn’t have any handy, I grabbed some wheat berries instead which I cooked first on the stove and added toward the end.
Ingredients
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 2 small to medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced (or butternut squash)-I used a mix of both as I had some cubes frozen from fall.
- Salt, to taste
- 2-3 T red Thai curry paste (available in the Asian section at most grocery stores-check to be sure no anchovies or shrimp were sacrificed for your paste)
- 1 C uncooked farro, rinsed (or 2 C cooked whole grains, like wheat berries, spelt berries or kamut)
- 6 C vegetable broth (or water flavored with vegetarian bouillon cubes)
- 1 C coconut milk (from a can-okay to use light)
- 2 C cooked chickpeas (or one can of cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained)
- 1/2 red pepper, finely chopped
- 1 small bunch of crinkly purple kale or green kale, finely chopped
- Sriracha to taste, I dropped in 1T
Instructions for crock pot:
Chop and dump. Simple as that. Omit the cooked wheat berries and chickpeas until about an hour before you are going to serve then pop them in the cooker to warm up with the rest of the items. My soup took 6.5 hours in a large crock pot. I used the last hour to add the wheatberries and chickpeas.
Instructions for stove top from Cookie + Kate:
- In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
- Stir in the onions, raw sweet red pepper, and sweet potato and a big pinch of salt. Sauté for five minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions start to soften.
- Add the curry paste and stir until the onions and sweet potatoes are coated and the curry is fragrant (about a minute).
- Add the farro, if that’s your grain of choice, and six cups of veggie broth or water and bouillon cubes and the coconut milk.
- Bring to a boil, then set the timer for thirty minutes, cover the pot and reduce the heat to a simmer.
- After thirty minutes, uncover the pot and add the chickpeas. Taste and season with more salt as needed (if it tastes flat, add more). If you chose to use cooked whole grains, add them now. Cover and simmer for another twenty minutes.
- Uncover, stir in the kale, add cayenne pepper if desired, and serve.
Notes
- Based on Heidi Swanson’s farro soup in Super Natural Every Day
; and adapted from Cookie and Kate’s version of this soup.
Veg Bon Vivant 