This Spanish vegetable soup is easy, quick, healthy, and incredibly delicious! Try an easy-to-make Spanish sopa de verduras with various vegetables.
Simplicity at its best: this Spanish vegetable soup is everything you could wish for in a vegetable soup. It features different sorts of veggies that you can change according to the season, some vegetable broth, and a few spices.
Yet the sopa de verduras is flavorful, comforting, and perfectly satisfying. I love it in spring, summer, autumn, or winter. I change the veggies with the season, use whatever I happen to have in the fridge, I make it with fresh or frozen vegetables or a mixture of the two.
One of my favorite soups, together with the Vegetable Meatball Soup, the Romanian Semolina Dumpling Soup, or the Bone Broth Vegetable Soup with Beans.
Vegetables
Today's Spanish soup recipe uses leeks, red bell peppers, carrots, white cabbage, and zucchini.
For a spring version, try adding or replacing some of the veggies with asparagus, artichokes, green beans, peas, or spinach.
For an autumn version, try squash or pumpkin, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, and tomatoes.
For a winter version, try kale, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, or Savoy cabbage.
Of course, you can combine any of these veggies at any time of the year.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Additions
Add a can of chickpeas or a can of can toward the end of the cooking time. Check out the Mexican Chickpea Soup, too.
Add some cooked rice at the end of the cooking time; just reheat it briefly in the soup. Or make this Rice and Bean Soup.
Chopped ham or bacon; cook them with the onions in the beginning.
How to make Spanish vegetable soup?
- Step #1: Chop all the vegetables.
- Step #2: Cook the onions and the garlic for a couple of minutes.
- Step #3: Add the paprika and stir shortly.
- Step #4: Add all the chopped veggies and stir well to coat with the spices.
- Step #5: Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring a few times.
- Step #6: Add the broth. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the veggies are cooked to your liking. Add salt, pepper, and parsley.
Cooking time
Traditional soups tend to overcook the vegetables. This is the same with all the Romanian vegetable soups my grandma used to cook, and with many other traditional soups, I have cooked over the years. I don't mind that; I think the overcooking is part of the recipe; it makes the soups comforting and satisfying.
However, many people don't like that; I don't like overcooked veggies other than in a soup, either.
You decide how long to cook the vegetables. After 10 minutes, they will be tender but still with a bite. After 15-20 minutes, they will be really soft. Check and stop when they are to your liking.
Store and reheat
Refrigerate the Spanish vegetable soup in the covered pot or an airtight container for 3-4 days.
Reheat it on the stovetop or microwave.
Spanish Vegetable Soup (Sopa de verduras)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 leek about 150 g/ 5.5 oz
- 1 large red bell pepper about 100 g/ 3.5 oz
- 3 smallish carrots about 100 g/ 3.5 oz
- ¼ white cabbage about 375 g/ 13 oz
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika powder Note
- 5 cups vegetable broth 1.2 liter
- fine sea salt and black pepper
- small bunch of parsley
Instructions
- Chop vegetables: Finely chop the onion and the garlic. Set aside. Clean and chop the leeks, pepper, carrots, and white cabbage. Set aside.1 medium onion + 3 garlic cloves + 1 leek + 1 large red bell pepper + 3 smallish carrots + ¼ white cabbage
- Saute: Heat the oil in a large soup pot. Add the onion and the garlic and cook gently for about 2 minutes, stirring, until very slightly colored.2 tablespoons olive oil
- Add paprika powder and stir for about 30 seconds.1 teaspoon sweet paprika powder + 1 teaspoon smoked paprika powder
- Add the chopped veggies and stir well to coat with the paprika. Turn the heat down and cook gently for 10 minutes, stirring from time to time.
- Simmer Spanish soup: Add the vegetable broth, cover, and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the vegetables are done to your liking. Adjust the taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.5 cups vegetable broth/ 1.2 liter + fine sea salt and black pepper + small bunch of parsley
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