The spicy soup challenge: no coconut milk, no problem

I've always been a big fan of soup, leek and potato being my favourite. Last year I used it as a weight-loss tactic, brewing up a big batch of soup at the beginning of the week and freezing daily portions ready for the microwave at lunchtime. Soup is not only filling, it can cover part of your five-a-day fruit and vegetable target and it's cheap to make with whatever seasonal veg are available. However, it's well known that Mr VV is not a big fan of soup. In fact, he once told me that he wasn't going to eat soup whilst he still had teeth 😆 That all changed last week when I cooked up a pot of carrot and coriander soup to use up some less than perfect carrots languishing in the bottom of the fridge. Mr VV had to concede that it was actually quite tasty, especially with a sprinkling of frozen coriander and a whirl of oat milk (of course, he had to add a dollop of sriracha sauce too!).

Sweet potato and mushroom satay soup

"If we could have spicy soups like this, I quite fancy having soup regularly for lunch, for a change" he said. Well, the challenge was on, and I began to look around for inspiration. We've just started following a couple of vegan vanlifers over on YouTube - check out Those Happy Days, they're the brains behind the biggest vegan social media following in the UK: Vegan Food UK on Facebook and Insta. One of their recent vlogs took them to a vegan cafe where a tasty spicy soup was on the menu. I think it was based on sweet potato and pumpkin. Whilst pumpkins tend to be scarce here in France, except around Halloween, I did have half a bag of frozen sweet potato that was crying out for a recipe.

At this time of year (the tail end of winter) when the "hungry gap" is dawning and the price of fresh vegetables goes through the roof, I tend to buy mostly frozen veg. After a bit of internet research, I found a couple of recipes for Satay Soup. Now, satay is one of Mr VV's favourite meals, so it looked like this could be a winner. The traditional recipe is Chicken Noodle Satay Soup (yuck), but I did find a few vegan versions. The basis of a satay is peanuts or peanut butter, soy sauce, chillies or sambal, and coconut milk, with garlic, ginger and occasionally lime juice. We had all of this, minus the coconut milk.

I had a root around in the freezer to see what I could pair with sweet potato and plumped for mushrooms. Frozen, they can be a bit hit-and-miss, so I find that's it's generally best to gently saute them and strain off the liquid as they do tend to retain a lot of water. In addition, I picked out mixed peppers, garlic, onion and coriander from the stash. Once the mushrooms were cooked I set them aside and cooked off the other vegetables in the same pan for about ten minutes. The sweet potato started to go a bit mushy, so at that stage I removed half of the veg to return to the soup later for a chunky texture. Then, it was time to add the spices, lemon juice, peanut butter and soya sauce. As Mr VV had bought soya sucre (sweetened soy sauce) on his last shopping trip, there was no need to add any extra sugar. Finally, I added a two cups of water and a teaspoon of Marigold bouillon powder and allowed the soup to simmer gently for another fifteen minutes or so. After whizzing it up with a stick blender, I added the mushrooms and veg mix back to the pan, and it was time for a taste test. The soup was just the right consistency and the flavour was spot on, and we certainly didn't notice the absence of coconut milk. To serve, I topped the soup with a sprinkle of frozen coriander and some toasted pumpkin seeds and cashews.

Ingredients list (all from the freezer or storecupboard!):

• 1 cup mushrooms
• 2 to 3 cups sweet potato
• 1 cup chopped mixed peppers
• 1/2 cup diced onions
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons of soya sucre sauce
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (bottled)
• 1 tablespoon chopped ginger
• 1 teaspoon sambal badjak extra hot
• 1 teaspoon Marigold bouillon powder
• 2 cups water

Mr VV declared the soup to be a great success and so I've added it to our family favourites. I might try adding some noodles and extra veg for a more substantial main meal. My next challenge is Hot & Sour soup, vegan of course.