January 12, 2017
Like a lot of people, you are probably experiencing a colder winter than usual, and the frigid temperatures can definitely send us into the kitchen in search of something warm and filling to eat to keep those winter chills at bay. Hearty soups generally fit this description to a “T” and offer the perfect blend of nutritious and delicious. One of my favourites — and one of the easiest to make — is vegan potato leek soup.
Guaranteed you will be able to whip this vegan version together in no time flat and not only have enough for your next meal, but for many more to come.
Based on the ingredients list below, I’ve calculated the following, so you know exactly how much of each macronutrient the recipe contains in order to help you easily break it down into portion sizes that suit your particular dietary needs (for instance, a day of heavy activity could warrant a bigger serving of carbs):
- Total calories (the entire pot): 1240
- Total fat: 28.8 g (259.2 calories)
- Total carbohydrates: 216.9 g (867.6 calories)
- Total protein 28.2 g (112.8 calories)
Personally, I opted to split the entire pot into 1.5-cup serving sizes (the equivalent to a medium-sized bowl), which gave me 8 servings. I enjoyed a steaming bowl right away then added the rest to 7 containers, 3 of which I refrigerated and the rest I froze for lunches for the coming week.
Each serving (which proved to be extremely satisfying after reheating, either in a microwave at work or on the stove-top at home) came to:
- Total calories: 155 calories
- Total fat: 3.6 g (32.4 calories)
- Total carbohydrates: 27.1 g (108.4 calories)
- Total protein: 3.5 g (14 calories)
Vegan Potato Leek Soup
Ingredients (all organic)
- 3 leeks medium-large
- 2 Yukon potatoes (together weighting 1.8 lbs)
- 3 celery stalks
- 1 medium onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 4 cups veggie broth
- 4 cups water
- 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
- Himalayan or sea salt, and freshly cracked pepper
Instructions
Melt the coconut oil in a large pot, add chopped onion and minced garlic, saute on medium-low heat until onion is translucent.
While that’s happening, prepare the leeks by slicing off the dark green ends (which can be saved for soup stock or slice up finely for salads), thinly slice the leeks into rings and discard the root ends, submerge the sliced leeks in a bowl of cold water then strain (and if you still see soil then run some water over them while in the strainer), then add sliced leeks to pot.
Wash the potatoes and chop into bite sized chucks (feel free to peel the potatoes but since they’re organic there’s no need to discard the skin which contains a lot of nutrients) then add to pot.
Stir all the ingredients in the pot to evenly coat leeks and potatoes with what remains of the coconut oil, add salt and pepper (I like to coat the ingredients with a layer of each).
Add veggie broth and water and stir (the amount of liquid to add is really up to your discretion — I like to stretch my soup over many servings so I tend to add more liquid, but if you prefer thicker creamier soup, then add less — if you like a stronger tasting soup, add more broth than water, or include some other of your favourite spices).
Bring contents of the pot to a boil, then lower the dial and simmer until potatoes are soft and break apart easily with a fork (about 20 minutes, longer if you have bigger potato chunks, less time if you chopped the potatoes into small pieces).
Remove pot from heat source, stir in nutritional yeast, blend contents of pot with an immersion blender (never do this while the pot is still on the heat source!) until the soup takes on a creamy texture but there are still bit sized chunks in the soup (you’ll want to keep some of these to enjoy biting into later!).
Make sure you enjoy some freshly made soup right away while it’s hot! Then divvy up the rest into however many servings you need for yourself or family members.
Serve with salad for a nutritious, delicious and filling meal. Before leaving the house in the mornings, I’ll quickly make a salad-in-a-jar (see my next blog post for this recipe) to pair with my container of soup. Later, in the office at lunch, I’m the envy of all my co-workers when I sit down to enjoy a steaming bowl of reheated homemade soup with a freshly made salad.
You can get even creative by swapping out the potatoes for different kinds of potatoes or squash or by adding some carrots. The carbohydrates in this soup are primarily complex carbohydrates, which digest slowly and help promote even energy levels throughout the day.
Set aside 30 minutes to make this soup, and you’ll be glad you did!
