Turn the Sweet Potato Soup Base into a meal with spicy chorizo, hearty chickpeas, and vibrant green kale. This makes a truly beautiful bowl of soup. If you’d rather keep this soup vegetarian, try the grain-based chorizo substitute from Field Roast, one of the first meat substitutes I’ve actually liked. It’s available in natural food stores in almost every state and through www.fieldroast.com.

　　

Ingredients

1 cup Sweet Potato Soup Base (page 41), defrosted if frozen

　　1/2 to 3/4 cup water or vegetable stock

　　1 (3-or 4-ounce) link fresh Mexican chorizo

　　1/3 cup cooked chickpeas, preferably homemade (page 47), rinsed and drained

　　4 or 5 leaves Tuscan kale (sometimes called black, dinosaur, or lacinato kale), stripped from the stem and torn into bite-size pieces

　　

Step 1

Pour the soup base into a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in 1/2 cup of the water and cook until the soup is bubbling hot, 3 to 4 minutes. Add more water if you want the soup thinner. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and keep it hot.

　　

Step 2

Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Slice through the chorizo casing and squeeze the sausage into the skillet. Cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until the chorizo’s fat starts to melt, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the chickpeas and cook until the chorizo and chickpeas brown, 4 to 6 minutes. Add the kale and stir-fry until the kale wilts slightly and brightens in color, 1 to 2 minutes.

　　

Step 3

Pour the soup base into a soup bowl, top with the chorizo mixture, and eat.

　　Reprinted with permission from Serve Yourself: Nightly Adventures in Cooking for One by Joe Yonan. Text copyright © 2011 by Joe Yonan; photographs copyright © 2011 by Ed Anderson. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.Joe Yonan is the food and travel editor at the Washington Post, where he writes the award-winning "Cooking for One" column. Joe's work also earned the Post the 2009 and 2010 James Beard Foundation's award for best food section. He is the former travel editor at the Boston Globe. Visit www.joeyonan.com.