Vegan Potato Leek Soup (with Coconut Milk & Dill)
This is one of my favorite simple soups and is easily made vegan by swapping the typical milk or cream for coconut milk. A huge dose of fresh dill compliments the other flavors perfectly.
Ingredients
- 4 Yukon Gold potatoes or whatever the fuck potatoes you have
- 1 Leek
- 1 bunch Dill
- 1 bunch Dinosaur/Lacinato kale
- 1 bunch Collard greens
- 1 clove Garlic
- 1 can Coconut milk
- 4 cups Vegetable stock*
- 3 cups Mushroom broth*
- 1/4 tsp Celery seed I just wanted an excuse to use this. Omit if you don't have.
- 1/8 tsp Cayenne pepper I basically add this to everything. Feel free to omit.
- 1/4 tsp Thyme dried or fresh, whatever TF floats your boat
- 1/2 tsp Basil dried or fresh, whatever you have
- 2 tsp Parsley dried or fresh, whatever you have
- 1/4 tsp Salt or to taste
- 1/4 tsp Pepper or to taste
Optional Add-ins
- Rice* cooked
- Tofu* pressed is best, but whatever
Instructions
- Chop potatoes into medium/large chunks. The bigger you leave them, the longer they take to cook through. Set aside.
- Chop leeks to desired thickness. I cut mine to roughly 1/4 inch pieces. Set aside.
- Chop the ends off dill. I like to keep my stems so I cut off about 1/4 inch off the ends. Chop the rest of the stems very small and chop all the fronds, reserving about half of those (or however much you want) for garnish.
- Chop kale and collards. You can keep the stems as with the dill and cut them small or remove them. I left my kale stems on and removed the bulk of the collard stems as they are larger, adding those to my veggie scraps that I freeze and save for homemade veggie stock.
- Add veggie stock, mushroom broth to a medium-large pot. (This makes a enough soup for leftovers so make sure to use a big enough pot.) Shake up canned coconut milk, then add that in too. Set heat to medium-low.
- Add your potatoes, spices, dill, kale, and collards to the soup pot.
- Cook until potatoes are almost done/fork-tend. This took about 20-30 minutes for me but will depend on the size of your taters. Add in your leeks. (This keeps them from overcooking.)
- Check leeks for doneness at 5 minutes, then again at 10 if still not ready. They should be soft but not overly so/falling apart. That shit is a travesty (trust me I know).
- Serve over rice. Add chunks of pressed/firm tofu to the top and garnish with a whole lotta dill. Add more salt and pepper as needed to taste. Sprinkle with a little more cayenne if desired.
Notes
- We often make our own vegetable stock from veggie scraps, but the stuff from the store is fine too (stock or broth whatever is fine...I find the difference confusing when it comes to veggie stock vs broth, but here's the best explanation I could find if you care. One box of the store-bought kind yields 4 cups of liquid.
- Mushroom broth...I basically used this because it was already open in my fridge. Feel free to sub veggie broth if you are not into mushrooms.
- Rice substitutions: sub barely, couscous, or a small pasta variety like elbows etc.—whatever you have on hand/prefer. You can also leave it out entirely.
- Per the tofu, I pressed it in advance with a tofu press to remove the excess water and make it super firm. This tool is magical, I swear. But tofu right out of the package is fine too.