African Coconut Curry Soup

Ok so I know I haven't been living up to my 'Healthy Eats' portion of my blog lately... I apologize. I think I may have mentioned this months ago, but with school being pretty busy I haven't been all that creative when it comes to making dinners. I often just make an easy favourite of mine and call it a day. And frankly, it's sooo much more fun to come up with a yummy dessert on my time off than a full dinner.

I have ALSO noticed that taking pictures of food that is not pretty, or frankly just ugly, is fricken hard!! And I'll be honest, this soup isn't that pretty looking. I'm sure if I had superior photography skills and a decent camera I could get it to look nicer, but with what I'm working with, this is the best that I could do. With cupcakes, I can take a dozen photos and each one will look good (well- sometimes), but with this soup, I had to take picture after picture, and I'm still not happy with the end result.

Regardless of how this soup looks though, it was delicious, and something that you could seriously whip up in 10 minutes. I couldn't get enough of it, and was so disappointed when Sean reminded me that he's not a fan of curry and wouldn't be trying any. Oh well, his loss!

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons canola oil

1 medium onion (about 6 ounces), chopped

1 medium red bell pepper (about 6 ounces), chopped

1 jalapeño chili, seeded and finely chopped (optional, I did not use any)

2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

4 cups vegetable broth. divided 

1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 can diced tomatoes

2 teaspoons mild curry powder

1/4- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste (I added more than this) 

black pepper, to taste

1 (14-ounce) can light coconut milk

3/4 cup cooked white or brown rice

 

Directions:

In a medium stockpot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper, and chili (if using) and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir frequently to prevent burning for 1 minute. Add 3 cups of broth, chickpeas, tomatoes, curry powder, parsley, salt, and black pepper; bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 10 minutes or until vegetables are cooked.

 

In the meantime, cook rice as per directions on packaging. Use the remaining 1 cup of broth to cook the rice in, and if more liquid is needed, top up with water.

 

Once rice is cooked and soup has finished simmering, add the cooked rice and coconut milk; heat through until everything is nice and hot and ready to serve.  

Source: slightly adapted from The Tropical Vegan Kitchen, found through Epicurious. Pin It