Every year I have a soup recipe that I just can’t get enough of. I make it over and over again, always excited to heat it up for lunch throughout the week. Well, I’ve found my soup for this fall/winter — Kenyan Maharagwe.
Never heard of it? I hadn’t either, until a plant-based friend sent me a photo of a soup label, asking if I could recreate the awesome soup she’d just had. I was intrigued, and a few weeks later I began to research Kenyan soups and stews in an effort to learn the common vegetables and spices used in Kenyan red bean soups.
Next, I purchased the ingredients and started messing around in the kitchen. It took me a while to find the right blend of spices and flavors, but I’m thrilled with the final result!
This Kenyan red bean soup is filling, flavorful, and packs an anti-inflammatory punch! And while it contains a lot of spices and peppers, it’s not spicy-hot like you’d expect. The coconut milk really tones down the heat while providing some healthful fat to aid in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and antioxidant-rich turmeric.
If you try one new soup recipe this fall, make it this one. I’ve been telling everyone I know about it, and I’ve even made it for my parents. Is it weird to get this excited about soup?
This Kenyan soup is so nutritious and tasty, you’ll want to make it over and over. I think I even like it better than chili!
If you’re intimidated by the long ingredient list, don’t be. Most of the spices should already be in your spice rack, and I highly encourage you to keep a bottle of ginger paste in your fridge, as well as a jar of minced garlic to make things easier.
Tips for making this Kenyan soup quickly:
- Start by pulling out all of the ingredients and placing them on your kitchen counter (mise en place).
- While the onions, bell pepper, and garlic are cooking, measure out all of your spices (including ginger paste) into a single pinch bowl so they will be ready to add all at once. Also open your canned goods, drain the beans, and set the cans next to the soup pot.
- When you add water to your soup to thin it out a bit, simply add water back into your diced tomato can and swirl it around to rinse all of that extra tomato juice off of the inside of the can, and pour it all into your soup. This way you don’t waste any of that delicious tomato juice, and you’ve already rinsed your can!
- ½ lg. yellow onion, chopped
- ½ lg. red bell pepper, chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp. ground turmeric
- 2 tsp. ground cumin
- 1 tsp. ground coriander
- ¼ tsp. ground cardamom
- Fat pinch crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp. ginger paste
- 1 medium jalapeño, chopped
- 2 tps. agave
- Salt to taste (I used ~1 tsp.)
- Black pepper to taste
- 2 15-oz cans kidney beans, drained
- 1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes (I like fire-roasted), WITH the juice
- 1 13.5-oz can full-fat coconut milk*
- 1 cup water
- Optional: fresh cilantro, toasted almond slices
- Sauté onions, bell pepper, and garlic in ¼ inch of water in a soup pot over medium heat until soft, 7-10 mins.
- While the veggies are cooking, measure out your spices into a pinch bowl and open your cans.
- Add all spices, including the ginger paste, plus the jalapeño. Stir to create a paste-like consistency and cook about one minute, not allowing the mixture to get too dry (add a splash of water if needed).
- Reduce heat to low and stir in the agave, salt and pepper, beans, tomatoes, and coconut milk. Add water to thin to desired consistency.
- Simmer at least 20 mins, stirring occasionally.
- Serve with fresh cilantro, toasted almonds, and corn bread.
Store in the fridge up to 5 days.
Please try this soup and let me know what you think! My parents loved it, and I’m sure you will too!
♥ ♥ ♥
Also try my African Lentil Stew!
We first had this soup while on vacation in Iceland. (Note that the photo taken shows the price in Kronor ;). We just tried the recipe for dinner and it was wonderful! Very flavorful. Easy to make and very much like the soup we had on holiday!
Great to hear! Glad you enjoyed it!
Just had this amazing soup in Iceland,and that pic was taken where we had lunch today😂 I am so gonna try this recipe when we get home!!😋😋best soup i’ve ever had!!
The fabulous Kenya soup from Iceland (the Golden Circle tour) brought me to this page! Amazing to see others loved it too! It was topped with roasted almond flakes and fresh coriander. Absolutely delicious.
Ooooo, roasted almond and fresh coriander sounds like a delicious topping! I’ll have to try that!
I was craving this soup after having it in Iceland. Google magic brought me to you page and I was so excited to see the photo from the same place I had my soup! Thanks!
That’s so cool! I hope you like my recipe. Also, how did we ever live without Google???
I.m happy that you’re trying to reproduce the recipe, but isn’t the right one
It.s way more complex then that.
I am making this soup in Geysir Supa, Iceland.
If you want the right recipe, reply me here.
I’d love to hear your version! All I did was read several recipes online to learn the flavor profile, then made a simple version for my readers. I don’t claim to be an expert!
Dany: I would love the original recipe 😍
I would love the full recipe, most incredible soup
Yes please
Hi Dany, in you wouldnt mind I would like to have ur recipe too – it was such a great dish we had in ur restaurant
I loved the soup in island. I would love to have this recipe.
I am so excited, as my husband & I had this soup in Reykavik, Iceland a week ago. It is the best soup!!! I even took a pic of the soup ingredients in hopes I could make it. It is the same pic taken by your reader, Melissa. It is amazing that I found it. Thank you for making it & sharing. I had planned on making this soup for my son & family this Sun..I can’t wait to make it!
Awesome! I can’t wait to hear what you think! 🙂
Like everyone else, my friend and I had this soup at Supa Geysir in Iceland – I had even snapped the same photo as the one you posted with the ingredients. Getting back on the bus, we Googled it and your webpage and recipe popped up! When I got back to NC (I’m in Cary), the third day back, made the soup and even my son loved it. I’m getting ready to make a double batch today, and instead of two cans of full fat coconut milk, I use 1 full and 1 lite, with not much degradation to taste. I have also added protein in the form of lean ground turkey that has been cooked before adding. One of your commentators appears to be the maker of the soup at Supa Geysir – have you taken her/him up on the offer for the actual recipe? The roasted almond flakes really does lend itself to a very pleasant taste (I’m not a huge fan of cilantro, so didn’t opt for it).
I’m so glad you like it! I replied to Dany that I’d like the recipe, but I haven’t heard back. If I get it, I’ll post it! Thanks!
I add peanuts to this dish and serve on top of short grained brown rice. When eaten this way, it is more like a stew. Its in my regular rotation of vegetarian recipes.
This was delicious. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
It looks very nice especially for a diabetic like me.
Are you using sweetened or unsweetened full fat coconut milk? Is full fat the same as cream of coconut?
Unsweetened! It’s similar to cream of coconut, but with more water in it. When you look at the cans of coconut, there’s regular and lite. The regular is the full-fat version that I use. You could also use the cream and just add some water if you can’t find regular coconut milk.