Kale & Sweet Potato Soup with Wild Rice
Hearty and cozy, this Kale & Sweet Potato soup is the perfect healthy comfort food for the long dark nights of Fall and Winter. Wild rice rounds out the texture, flavor and nutrient profile to help you feel full and satisfied for hours.
With their high nutrient levels and both being very low in calories, Kale and Wild Rice are some of the most nutrient-dense foods in the world!
For the best flavor and greatest value while shopping in produce departments, look for the winter fruits and vegetables that are in season.
Like all hearty cooking greens, cooler weather keeps kale nice and sweet.
Wild rice - Though it's not a "rich" protein source, nevertheless wild rice has twice the protein of regular brown or white rice, and is considered a complete protein, meaning it contains all nine essential amino acids.
Sweet potatoes and coconut milk not only provide a creamy mouthfeel to this soup recipe, they also provide a substantial portion of magnesium to help beat back the blues during shortening fall and winter days!
Mealtime conversation starters
Questions are a risk worth taking. They can lead you in so many directions. In Between bites of your kale and sweet potato, ask this question and see how the conversation flows.
What do you feel passionate about to protest?
Kale & Sweet Potato Soup with Wild Rice
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Ingredients
- 6 cups vegetable stock
- 1 cup wild rice uncooked
- 8 oz mushrooms sliced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 medium carrots diced
- 2 ribs celery diced
- 1 large sweet potato diced, about 1 pound
- 1 small white onion diced
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 ½ tbsp Herbs de Provence
- 1 can unsweetened coconut milk 14-ounce can
- 10 leaves kale roughly chopped with thick stems removed and chopped finely
- fine sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Combine vegetable stock, wild rice, mushrooms, garlic, carrots, celery, chopped kale stem, sweet potato, onion, bay leaf and Herbs de Provence in a large stockpot, dutch oven, or the bowl of a pressure cooker or slow cooker. Stir briefly to combine.
- Pressure cooker - Cook on manual (high pressure) for 25 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. Then carefully open the vent and quick release the remaining pressure.
- Optional Stovetop method - Heat until the soup reaches a simmer. Then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until the rice is tender, stirring occasionally.
- Optional Slow cooker method- Cook on high for 1 to 2 hours*, until the rice is cooked and tender. the cooking time for this recipe can vary widely between different brands of slow cookers. So I recommend testing the rice at the 1 hour point to see if it is close to being tender, and then every 20 minutes afterwards until the rice is ready to go.
- Optional Dutch oven method - cover and bake at 425F for 45-60 minutes
- After the vegetables are cooked remove and discard the Bay leaf, and your soup is ready for the final ingredients. Add the coconut milk and kale to the soup, stirring gently until combined, and the kale is wilted. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Serve. Serve warm and enjoy!
Notes
Hand Size Portions
Heather Lynn Darby helps office and tech professionals disrupt the cycle of chronic stress that undermines their health, and to recover from the negative effects of sitting at a computer all day. Find other articles written by Heather on her coach profile.
If you are largely sedentary at work and rely on your intellectual acumen for success, her take on body-mind interventions will help you find a balance between being "in the zone" and getting the amount of movement that will optimize your mental productivity and prevent health problems.
I made this recipe, and my family would rather have had the kale be in smaller pieces. Next time I will chiffonade the greens before adding to the soup! What I particularly loved though, was adding the greens to the already cooked soup, it gave them a nice wilting without them getting soggy and limp.