Sweet Potato, Kale and Chickpea Soup
This hearty and delicious soup is perfect for warming up. It's an easy, nutritious, one-pot meal that makes great leftovers, too!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on July 17, 2024
The holidays are almost here, but I’ve been eating like it’s Thanksgiving for the past few weeks. Food blogger problems! I’m seeking balance in the meals in between recipe testing by filling my belly with my favorite veggie-packed meals.
Case in point: This sweet potato, kale, chickpea and farro soup, which is both impossible to describe using fewer words. I shared this recipe five years ago, and it’s still one of my favorites.
I’m counting down the minutes until I can heat up a big bowlful of this soup for lunch. It’s spicy, filling, satisfying, and overflowing with so-called power foods and whole grain goodness. The Thai red curry paste might seem like an unlikely pairing for sweet potatoes, kale and farro, but somehow it just works.
I love this soup because each main ingredient contributes flavor while retaining its texture. The farro stays nice and chewy, the chickpeas don’t turn to mush like lentils might, the sweet potatoes retain their delicate bite, and the kale never wilts into nothingness like spinach tends to do.
While remaking the soup so I could take photos of it, I adjusted the ingredients and cooking method a bit. I used a fresh red bell pepper instead of chopping up roasted bell pepper, and found that the soup didn’t need nearly as long on the stove as the recipe originally suggested.
If you’re craving more hearty soups to get you through the holidays, check out my soup archives. Don’t miss the eight soup recipes in my cookbook, Love Real Food. Those soups are downright magical, if I can say so myself.
Vegan Sweet Potato, Kale and Chickpea Soup
This hearty and delicious soup is perfect for warming up. It’s an easy, nutritious, one-pot meal that makes great leftovers, too! Recipe yields 6 bowls of soup.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 pound sweet potatoes (2 small to medium or 1 large), peeled and diced (about 3 cups)
- ¼ teaspoon salt, more to taste
- 2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste*
- 1 cup uncooked farro, rinsed** (or 3 cups cooked whole grains, like wheat berries, spelt berries or kamut)
- 4 cups (32 ounces) vegetable broth
- 2 cups water
- 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained, or 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas
- ½ bunch of kale (4 ounces), chopped (about 3 cups)
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste (optional, if you like it extra spicy like me)
Instructions
- In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat until shimmering. Stir in the onion, bell pepper, sweet potato and salt. Sauté for five minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion starts to soften.
- Add the curry paste and stir until the vegetables are coated and the curry is fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add the farro, if that’s your grain of choice. Add the vegetable broth and water, and stir to combine.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 25 minutes.
- Test the farro for doneness—if it’s tender and cooked through, add the chickpeas and kale. Stir to combine, and cook for 5 more minutes, or until the kale is cooked to your liking. If you chose to use pre-cooked whole grains, add them now. (If the farro is not done cooking yet, continue simmering until it’s tender, then proceed with the kale. This could take another 20 minutes, depending on the farro.)
- Taste, and season with more salt as needed. I usually add about ½ teaspoon—if the soup tastes flat, add more salt. To kick up the flavor a notch and balance the sweetness of the sweet potatoes, stir in the optional cayenne pepper.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and serve. I like this soup even more the next day. Leftovers keep well, covered and refrigerated, for about 4 days. The soup freezes well, too.
Notes
Recipe based on Heidi Swanson’s farro soup in Super Natural Every Day.
Serving suggestions: This soup is vegan, but mighty tasty with a side of whole wheat toast slathered with goat cheese.
*Thai red curry paste: Look for it in the Asian/international section of the grocery store. I like Thai Kitchen brand, which is vegan (some brands contain shrimp). You can substitute 1 tablespoon curry powder for the curry paste, for a totally different flavor.
**Whole grain notes: I prefer using farro as the whole grain because it requires less cooking time than wheat berries, spelt berries or kamut, so it can be cooked along with the soup. The soup is great with those other whole grains, but you’ll want to start cooking those in a separate pot well before the farro; just add the whole grains along with the chickpeas so no ingredients are overcooked or lose their texture.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Here’s the original photo from 2012.
This looks delicious!!! Love it. I too, am experiencing some tight jeans related crankiness, so I made my version last night. Your photos are gorgeous and those bowls are super cute!
My skinny jeans are now the muffin liners to my muffin top. It’s glorious.
I just did a mental inventory of what’s in my fridge/cabinets and I have all the ingredients for this. Hooray!!!!! Totally make it this weekend!
Ha! Your comment totally cracked me up, Julia. Glad I don’t have the only post-holiday muffin top in blog town. :)
This will be the perfect soup to break in my new pot once the weather cools down around here! Not only are my pants a little tight, but I’m going to Hawaii in March, so your recipe comes at just the right time. I like those bowls, they look like flowers! And is that your new cutting board and knife I spy?!
Thanks, Heather! You have plenty of time before March. And yes, you did spy my new cutting board and knife! You’re so observant! I love them; you’ll probably see those pieces in every post hereafter.
This is my kind of soup! And I’m looking forward to a little less tight jeans as well : )
You and me alike. I get super cranks when my pants don’t fit. I have been eating very healthy to shed some pounds for my cousin’s wedding. Will have to make this soup! I LOVE kale and chick peas in general.
If you love kale and chickpeas, I promise you will love this soup! Hope you give it a try, Supal!
Well aren’t you just little miss healthy eats. This soup looks amazing! I’ll have to tag it to try sometime.
btw, I love your blog design! So simple, clean and appeasing to the eye : )
Thank you, Dana! That’s precisely the look I was going for. I’m a total perfectionist.
Looks yummy!
I love those bowls, where did you get them?!
Thanks, Leah! The bowls are vintage; I couldn’t resist them when I saw them at a local gift shop!
I like your attitude! I’m all about moderation not deprivation, and this is a perfect example of clean eating without feeling like you’re being cheated out of the good stuff in life. Thanks for the inspiration!
P.S. Great photos too!
The soup looks delicious, but I’m in love with those bowls. They’re adorable!
Yummy! I love soup, even though our weather has been amazingly warm so far this year I’m still craving soups like this. I love the whole grains, although I’d probably have to use some other grain as I haven’t been able to find farro(not for lack of trying!) I have to say the sweet potatoes drew me in, they are so good in soup!
Hey Heidi, I had a really hard time finding farro, too! I brought some home from my trip to Cleveland. I can’t tell a noticeable difference between farro and wheat berries, so those would be a great substitution. I would just cook the wheat berries separately and add them towards the end.
This looks AMAZING!!! I can’t wait to try it – I just bought a bag of sweet potatoes and was wondering what to do with them!
I make a similar soup that I love. I will have to try yours next time!
My skinny jeans are definitely tight with the top button un-buttoned… Thank god for the holidays being over and for kale! Love the red curry paste idea, I never thought of using it in a soup like this, but I will now.
this looks super yummy. totally want a bowl now!
Sounds soooo good! I am in a very similar situation of eating soups so this recipe is perfect!
I like it, I like it a lot!
Can’t wait to try this.
: ))
Jen
Oh boy! I just completed my grocery list for things to pick up on my walk home from work tonight :) I loooove soup! Can’t wait to try this recipe :D
This looks so great! I do a similar version using beluga lentils, kale, and sweet potatoes. I’ll have to give your recipe a try!
This looks fantastic. Lots of wholesome great ingredients going on here. First time to your site and happy I found it!
one of my favorite winter stews is sweet potato & lentil…think I’ll have to switch out the lentils for chickpeas to make it similar to yours! yum!
This is a beautiful looking soup! I love sweet potatoes and kale, so I can’t wait to try this.
This soup looks right up my alley! Hearty and delicious. Bookmarking to make soon, thanks!
This soup looks right up my alley! Hearty and delicious. Bookmarking to make soon, thanks!
The soup is amazing, we had it for sunday dinner. I didn’t have any kale so I used collards and red cabbage leaves from the garden. Thanks for your wonderful recipes, I check your site everyday for something new.
Thank you for commenting, Brenda! I’m so happy to hear that you check my site often. I’ll try to post something in the next couple of days for you. :)
Made this tonite after work! It is so easy and flavors develop fast! My husband loved it too saying I was the best chef ever!!!! Thanks for sharing! Btw, I used a cup of uncooked barley and twice the amount of Thai curry paste because we like spice! Very good!
I’m so glad you and your husband loved the soup! I just cooked barley for the first time this morning. I expected it to be a little chewy like wheat berries or farro, but it’s not! I’m already scheming up recipes for it. That was gutsy, doubling the curry paste—the spicier, the better, in my opinion, but I try to tone it down for my readers! I’ll add even more curry paste next time!
looks perfectly hearty and healthy! I will have to try this and I am going through a phase of making a big pot/bowl of something to have through the week when I don’t feel like cooking.
I’ve been dreaming of soup all day, and now I see THIS – It’s kismet.
Can’t wait to fill my belly with this gorgeous soup.
Just made this! I used a combination of sweet potatoes and butternut squash. It turned out great! Thanks for the recipe.
I bet butternut squash is fantastic in this soup. I’ll try that next time! Thank you for commenting, Mandi!
I just made the soup tonight! It was SO good. I omitted the farro because I was in a pinch and didn’t get a chance to run to the co-op to see if they had any but the soup was just as good without it. Thank god for Pinterest because I wouldn’t have found your blog without it. Count me in as a loyal reader!
I bought what I needed last night and am making this tonight!! I am BEYOND excited. I got wheat berries though instead of farro (thanks for making that suggestion).
So glad to hear it, Cynthia! Please let us know how the soup turned out!
I made this soup last night and it was delicious! It is definitely going to be a staple dish for me and you now have a loyal follower. The only thing I would advise to anyone making this dish is that as delicious as it is- the recipe as is packs a punch with the sodium (vegetable broth, curry paste)- when I make this again, I’m going to omit sprinkling the salt in the beginning- the soup will have enough of it by the end.
So glad to hear you’re following, Alex! You have a good point on sodium—I actually used sodium-free veggie bouillon cubes instead of regular veggie broth, but I added salt liberally, so who knows how it turned out. The reasoning for sprinkling salt in the beginning is to bring out the flavor of the onions and help them release water, but of course that step is up to you!
I will definitely have to use bouillon cubes next time! I’ve never used them before. Thanks for the tip =D
You’re welcome, Alex! I like the Rapunzel brand. Heidi Swanson recommended that brand in one of her books—it’s been easy to find and it’s even less expensive than canned veggie broth. I dare say it tastes better, too!
this is such a great soup! i love the spiciness of the thai curry mixed with subtle flavours from the sweet potato and kale. yum!
A ‘tummylicious’ soup. The first picture had me hooked.
The combination in this soup looks delicious!
I made this soup with what I had on hand, after seeing it recommended by Emeline at http://www.emelineandannabelle.com/news/daily/friday-sendoff-food-fight/ . It is awesome, even missing some ingredients that I didn’t have. I’m on my second bowl, and both my teenaged daughters like it too, so it’s a win all round. I substituted middle eastern ‘foul’ beans (sometimes called fava) for chick peas, yellow curry paste for red, and I didn’t put in any grains at all, so I reduced the broth. Oh, and I left out the red pepper and cayenne, too…. I’ll add some of the missing stuff the next time I make it, which will be very, very soon since we are almost out already! It’s good with a dollop of sour cream in it, too.
LOVED IT!! We just had it for dinner… made it exactly like the recipe except for using butternut squash instead of sweet potato since I had one I needed to use… Soooooo good… The curry paste MAKES this recipe… Awesome!
thanks so much for this awesome recipe! so happy to have discovered your site!
Just made this tonight. So YUM! Thanks for sharing. Love this and the Food Matters stuff you are doing. I went ahead and got that book. Great ideas and recipes.
Hope you are well!!
Your comments always make me so happy, Kirsten! I love that you are a fan of the Food Matters Project. That cookbook is one of my very favorites, if not my VERY favorite!
I want you to know that I made this and it was delicious! I used quinoa instead of farro, though.
Hi Kate
Just made this for my wife, my son and his girlfriend. It turned out great. I couldn’t find Farro so I used some Bulgur instead. The Bulgur cooked up kind of chunky in the soup, so I took out about 1/4 of the soup before adding kale and pureed it and added it back, which made for a nicer overall consistency.
Looking forward to having this all week, what a great healthy recipe.
Had found your blog by googling this particular recipe. After having a chance to look around, really wanted to thank you for the care and effort you have put into all the great healthy recipes and beautiful professional layout.
I absolutely love your blog Kate…I have shared it on my Facebook page and have passed it on to my sister and a dear fellow vegetarian friend who both have replied with excitement.
Last night I made your sweet potato, kale and chick pea soup…i made a few changes used paprika and turmeric instead of red curry paste(not a fan of curry), I added a small amount of white wine and used Santina pasta(tiny stars) …it was absolutely delicious!
I also made your Macaroons minus the chocolate…I am making more today…so so good!! I may try 50/50 honey and maple syrup.
Thank you so much! Looking forward to making more of your recipes.
Thank you so much for your comment and for sharing my blog, Kris. I’m delighted to hear that you are enjoying my recipes. Please let me know how the others turn out. Happy holidays!
I’m making this soup for the first time, I’m on a low sodium “heart healthy” diet so I didn’t add salt and I used low sodium broth. It smells delicious!
Made the soup on a chilly, gray day. It was delicious! Loved the kick from the curry paste and cayenne. This is my new favorite winter dish. Thanks!
Thanks for commenting, Kate! This soup is one of my very favorite winter meals. So glad you agree.
I cannot wait to try this. I hope I can find red Thai curry paste in our store.
I made this soup many times last winter, and now I’m back for more! It really is so good. I was lucky enough to find farro at my grocery store, but I also tried a version with wheat berries–that was good too! I’m making a pot of this now, and will divide it up into glass jars to bring for lunch at work. I usually have quite an appetite at lunch, so I’m throwing some extra beans this time–one can of garbanzo and one can of great northern white beans. Hopefully the extra beans won’t overpower the flavor and I’ll stay satisfied longer. Thanks for this tasty winter treat. :)
Thanks, G.Fred. I’ve been craving this soup all winter and might just have to make some after I get back from my conference trip next week. I’m feeling a little fluffy after the holidays and I think this soup is just the ticket, filling but not too heavy. Good idea with the extra beans! P.s. miss you, hope to see you sometime soon.
This soup looks amazing! The only thing is I’m not really a fan of grains in soups. Do you think it would turn out all right if I left them out? Should I use less broth? Or substitute in more veggies? Thanks!
Hi Victoria, please forgive my delayed response. I really do love farro in soups because it doesn’t get mushy like pasta or rice. However, I think you could leave out the farro. Either less brother or more veggies would balance it out, I think. Good thinking!
You know, I think I will try the farro. If it’s not really my thing, I can always make it again without. There’s a lot of winter left here in Chicago!
Thank you for this recipe. I would marry this soup–if it was a man and I wasn’t already married.
Haha. Thanks for the great comment, F!
OBSESSED! Made this tonight, but substituted barley for the farro because it is what I had in the pantry! Took a bit of extra liquid but was SO flavorful and wholesome. Perfect for this chilly night!
Woohoo! Thanks, Mary. I’m glad you loved the soup.
Just made this last night – doubled the recipe. I often make double batches of soup on Sundays so that my boyfriend and I can enjoy it the entire week. We both have big appetites and don’t get tired of eating the same thing for several days. Also I had all the ingredients besides the red curry paste and didn’t want to go to the store, so I substituted Sriracha (!) along with a couple of tablespoons of tomato sauce! I was a little afraid of how it would turn out, but it’s pretty good, especially the next day. I can’t wait to make is using red curry paste, though. I suspect that will be better.
Thanks for commenting, Lana! I’m glad you both enjoyed the soup. I bet sriracha turned out pretty well, though I think you might like it even better with red curry paste! Hope you’ll give it a try before the weather gets too warm.
This was amazing and so easy to make! Thanks for the recipe! I am excited to eat later ;)
Thanks for commenting, Tatiana! Glad you’re enjoying it!