This purple sweet potato soup delivers big flavor with simple ingredients – get ready to dig into a bowlful of happiness!
Purple Sweet Potatoes: Taste & Texture
First, have you ever had purple sweet potatoes? I hadn’t tried them for my first couple of decades eating plant-based! I just didn’t come across them in our grocery stores. So when I did find them, I was so excited to cook with them.
But I was surprised with their texture and flavor. I was used to the very moist, sweet flavor or orange and yellow varieties. (Find many sweet spud recipes in this post).
I was cooking with the Stokes variety of purple sweet potatoes, so I cannot compare to other varieties. But these purple sweet spuds are somewhat dry and dense, and have a light floral flavor (very light, but distinct from orange and yellow).
So instead of roasting or making fries with purple sweet potatoes, try using them in casseroles, stews, and soups where they can absorb moisture and other flavors.
Purple Sweet Potato Stew: Ingredients
This soup is a meal in a bowl, with these hearty plant-based ingredients:
- onion, celery, and garlic: base flavor-building ingredients
- dried herbs and spices: more flavor-building
- purple sweet potatoes: (option to sub in purple potatoes or a combination of these with yellow or orange sweet potatoes)
- canned crushed tomatoes: try fire-roasted for extra flavor!
- canned kidney beans and black beans: complex carbohydrates, fibre, and protein
- red lentils: more complex carbohydrates, fiber and protein
- kale: mighty kale is wilted in just before serving for more mighty nutrients
Sweet Potato Soup: Pureed vs Chunky
I chose not to create a pureed soup with these purple sweet potatoes for a couple of reasons. First, a purple soup reminds me of this scene from Bridget Jones. 🤭 I guess I can’t get past eating something purple or blue (unless it’s a blueberry dessert)!
Also, I think the flavor and texture of purple sweet spuds lend themselves towards a hearty, chunky soup. Purple sweet potatoes have a drier consistency and also a very light floral essence. So it can be a bit of a surprise if you aren’t used to eating them.
This soup first appeared in my bonus ebook for the release of Dreena’s Kind Kitchen, named “PPF Soup” (a nod to my PPF cookbook). I have since included it in my Water Element guide as well. You can find both collections in my new bookstore, right here. Thank you for supporting my work, as it allows me to bring more recipes to my site. 🙏
Please share in the comments how you enjoyed the stew. x Dreena
Purple Sweet Potato Stew
Filled with purple sweet potatoes and black beans, this soup has splendid deep red and purple colors and makes a hearty batch—it’s your purple people feeder! When we were eating this soup one night, the family joked it would be fun to call it “purple people feeder soup.” Then, I realized the acronym Is PPF – the same for Plant-Powered Families. Couldn’t resist!
Ingredients
- 3-4 tbsp red wine or water
- 2 cups chopped red or white onion
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon cumin seed or dill seed
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Ground black pepper to taste
- 4 cloves garlic minced or grated
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 2 cups water or more to thin as desired
- 4-5 cups cubed bite-sized purple sweet potatoes (see note)
- 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
- 1 15-oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 15-oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
- ½ cup red lentils well rinsed
- 2 tablespoons vegan Worcestershire sauce
- Few pinches crushed red pepper flakes optional
- 4-5 cups torn kale leaves see note
Instructions
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Place a soup pot over medium-high heat.
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Pour in 3 tablespoons wine or water and add the onion, celery, oregano, mustard, cumin seed, allspice, salt, and pepper.
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Cook for 4–5 minutes or until the onion is slightly softened; if the veggies are sticking, add a splash more wine or water.
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Stir in the garlic and about ½ cup of the stock and cook for another few minutes until garlic is fragrant and starting to soften, watching so the garlic doesn’t burn. Reduce heat if needed.
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Add remaining stock, water, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, lentils, Worcestershire, and red pepper flakes.
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Increase the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 12–15 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are fork-tender and the red lentils are cooked through.
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Turn off the heat, then stir through the kale leaves and let them sit in the hot soup for a couple of minutes, just to wilt.
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Taste and adjust with extra pepper or other any seasonings as you like.
Video
Notes
Potato Note: If you don’t have purple sweet potatoes, you can sub orange or yellow sweet potatoes. Or, try a combination of sweet and waxy potatoes like red or Yukon gold.
