Vegan Vegetable Soup (Gluten Free)

This delicious, heart warming vegan soup is made from roasted almond butter, vegetable stock, sweet potato, cassava dumpling, seasoning and much more. This is a great alternative to using peanuts, making it allergy friendly and inspired by West Africa's groundnut soup with a Caribbean flare.

This recipe is more of a fusion one, but one that I promise you will love as much as I do.

It's sort of like a vegan almond soup, although the name might sound offputting, the soup is far from being unappealing.

As always I promise to deliver true flavour using a combination of West Africa with Caribbean flavours.

Even though the Caribbean holds most of it's roots in West Africa, there are some foods that didn't cross over and groundnut (aka peanuts) in a main meal isn't one of them.

First of all, we refer to groundnuts as peanuts, the term groundnuts is more of a West African thing.

However, we have peanut based recipes i.e. peanut brittle, spicy roasted peanuts, peanut punch and peanut porridge.

What is groundnut soup?

Ground nut soup is made from peanuts (typically roasted) although some people use peanut butter paste instead.

The base of the recipe tends to be seared meat - goat meat, cray fish, cow skin, chicken some people use a medley, while others will use one specific type of meat.

A puree is made from the onions, tomatoes, peppers and chilli's and so fourth. Other ingredients can be included, but this is down to the individual.

The aforementioned is usually pureed into a smooth consistency and transfered into a saucepan with the groundnut, meat, additional seasoning and simmered down.

The soup is served with rice, fufu, banku, kenkey and so fourth. In essence, the recipe is more like a stew than it is an actual soup which you would serve with a spoon

My twist on this soup

My twist on groundnut soup, is more of an actual soup which is served with a spoon as opposed to being a stew.

Having eaten groundnut soup before, gave me some leverage to emerge a dish from the motherland, one that Caribbean people are unfamilar with and mix it with a few Caribbean customs.

The Caribbean flare derives from a few common ingredients that are used by most of islands, specially the English speaking ones - Thyme, all purpose seasoning, coconut milk, scotch bonnet, ground provisions and dumplings.

Although coconut milk and scotch bonnet are used by both Africa and the Caribbean but you get where I am coming from.

As this is a vegan rendition, I used a combination of vegetable stock with coconut milk. I also choose to use cassava dumplings but you are more than welcome to use cornmeal, plain or otherwise.

My choice of vegetables are miminal, with more emphasis on white fleshed sweet potatoes, cho cho and okra.

If you are an open minded person than this recipe is for you. My recipe is made from roasted crunchy almond butter instead of being made from peanuts to keep the recipe more allergy friendly.

Rather than use fresh tomatoes I used passata instead for a rich, silky smooth texture. There is a ratio of passata to almond butter but I promise the recipe isn't acidic.

I feel that this ratio allows the almond butter to come through in a complimentary way without being overpowering.

This is a soup with a twist, a complete contrast to the traditional Saturday soup that I ate growing up.

This is Charla tapping into other ways to make healthy, hearty soup that are full of omega fats.

The body needs to absorb nutrients and produce hormones and complex carbohyrates that fill keep you fit, strong and energised.

The steps

• Add the olive oil to a large stockpot on medium heat.
• Proceed to sautee the onion, scallion, garlic, ginger and bell peppers in the stockpot until they are soft and tender.
• Stir in the passata, coconut milk and vegetable stock then bring to the boil and reduce to low heat.
• Allow the passata/stock to simmer with the lid on for 10 minutes so all of the ingredients are fully infused.

• After 10 minutes stir in the almond butter until it melds into the soup.
• Add the cho cho, okra and sweet potatoes.
• Season the soup with the all purpose seasoning, chado beni and thyme.

• Simmer on medium-low heat for a total of 25-30 minutes during the simmering time prepare the cassava dumplings and set aside..
• After 20 minutes add the dumplings and simmer for a further 15-20 minutes.
• Season with black pepper and pink salt to taste.
• Discard the thyme stems and scotch bonnet before serving accordingly.

Notes and tips

• You can use any variation of dumpling in this recipe - Coconut Dumpling, Boiled Dumpling or Cassava Dumpling.
• This is the link of the Vegetable Broth and All Purpose Seasoning.
• Don't freeze the soup, it is best to serve it straight away or re-heat and serve.
• Consume any leftover soup within 2 days.
• You will need a large stock pot that holds 2 quarts/2 litres.
• Feel Free to add any additional vegetables to the soup.
• You can use fresh or dried herbs, but fresh is always better (if possible).
• Use either smooth or chunky almond butter.

More vegan soup recipes to try

• Sopa de Platano (Green Plantain Soup)
• Caribbean Pumpkin Soup
• Spicy Cabbage Detox Soup
• Caribbean Detox Soup
• Cuban Black Bean Soup
• Jamaican Pumpkin Soup

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