Vegan Sweet Potato, Kale and Chickpea Soup

The apartment is ready. I have been there every day this week — adjusting, arranging, making sure the curtains hang right and the kitchen drawers close smoothly and the bathroom has grab bars because Mami is eighty-one and bathrooms are where falls happen and I will not let a fall happen, not to this woman, not after everything she has survived. Eduardo installed the grab bars himself. He measured and drilled and tested them with his own weight because Eduardo takes safety personally, the way I take food personally, and between us we cover the two things that matter most: nutrition and structural integrity.

At the hospital, January is flu season on steroids. Every bed is full. My kitchen is producing maximum meals. I run from the apartment to the hospital to my home kitchen in a triangle of purpose that leaves me exhausted by 8 PM but also alive in the way that only exhaustion from meaningful work makes you alive. I am feeding patients. I am preparing for Mami. I am cooking dinner for Eduardo and Sofia. Three kitchens. Three purposes. One woman.

Sofia is starting her second semester of community college. She is taking anatomy this semester, which requires memorizing bones and muscles and organs, and she sits at the kitchen table with her textbook and quizzes herself while I cook. She says, Mami, what is the humerus? I say, The upper arm bone. She says, How do you know that? I say, Mija, I have a degree in nutrition. I know where every bone is and what to feed it. She looks at me with new respect, the kind of respect that happens when a child realizes her mother actually knows things that are useful in a college classroom. I enjoy this respect. It has been earned over fifty-two years and a nutrition degree.

Made caldo gallego tonight — Galician white bean soup with ham and turnip greens, not traditionally Puerto Rican but a recipe I learned from a coworker twenty years ago and adopted because good food does not have borders. Good food is good food. If a Galician soup warms my family on a January night in Hartford, then that soup is mine. I claimed it. I made it my own by adding sofrito, because everything I touch gets sofrito added to it, and the sofrito makes it better because sofrito makes everything better. This is not an opinion. This is natural law.

When you are running between three kitchens and your body is tired but your heart is full, you need a soup that does the work for you. This vegan sweet potato, kale, and chickpea soup has that same soul as my caldo gallego—greens, legumes, warmth—but it comes together even faster on the nights when I barely have time to sit down. The chickpeas give it that same satisfying heft as white beans, the kale stands in for turnip greens, and yes, I add sofrito, because I am who I am and sofrito is what I do.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons sofrito (homemade or store-bought)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
6 cups vegetable broth
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced fire-roasted tomatoes
4 cups chopped kale, stems removed
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

Sauté the aromatics. Heat olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the diced onion and cook until softened, about 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, sofrito, cumin, smoked paprika, and red pepper flakes. Cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
Build the soup base. Add the sweet potatoes, chickpeas, vegetable broth, and diced tomatoes with their juices. Stir to combine and bring to a boil.
Simmer until tender. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are fork-tender.
Add the greens. Stir in the chopped kale and cook uncovered for 3 to 4 minutes, until the kale is wilted and tender but still bright green.
Season and serve. Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and serve hot.

Nutrition (per serving)

Vegan Sweet Potato, Kale and Chickpea Soup — Three Kitchens, One Pot of Something Warm