Thursday, January 17, 2013

Sweet Potato & Chilies Soup

Soup night of week #1. I chose Sweet Potato soup since I knew I would have extra sweet potatoes after Roast Root Veggie Salad night.

After eating it, I would rate it as a good soup - but not a great one. We'll make it again later this winter, but I think I may try it with roast walnuts and nutmeg instead of chilies. With that said, this is a good soup recipe, and definitely has a unique, sweet & spicy flavor. Definitely worth a try.

Sweet Potato & Chilies Soup 

1/2 yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (more or less depending on desired spiciness)
1 tsp paprika
5 cups sweet potatoes, diced
4 cups chicken stock
* alternatively, you could use vegetable stock to make this a vegetarian meal

In a soup pot, saute the onion, garlic, red pepper, and paprika until slowly browned. Add the diced sweet potato and saute until slightly browned. In my opinion, the longer you let the sweet potatoes saute, the nicer flavor you'll have. Think sweet potato fries turned into soup - um, yummy.

When the sweet potatoes are nicely browned (or whenever you want, really) add the 4 cups stock. Reduce heat to low and allow soup to simmer for approx 20 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are soft. Using an immersion blender, blend the soup to a creamy consistency.  Alternatively, if you don't have an immersion blender - turn off the soup, get in your car, and go buy one. Come home, turn the soup back on, use your new immersion blender. Stand in wonder at the fact you ever made homemade soup without an immersion blender.

Ok, in all seriousness - making creamy soups without an immersion blender is possible, but definitely more laborious and messy. However, if you don't have an immersion blender or don't want one, just transfer the soup to the blender in batches, blend, and then return to the stove once it's all blended.

Once your soup is blended, in whatever way you chose to blend - it is ready to serve. It's delicious with warm bread, sourdough would be amazing.

There you go - pretty easy. Also a great recipe for a quick meal at home.

Make ahead tips:
* do all your chopping anytime within 24 hours before you make the soup, put the sweet potatoes in water if you are chopping them more than an hour before use.

Let me know what you think, and I'll let you know when we do it again with roasted walnuts and nutmeg! I think it'll be like Christmas in a bowl...

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