Sweet Potato Soup with Spiced Crunch
Walking through the supermarket when hungry is always a bad idea. Your mouth tingles and begins to salivate at ever turn even if you spot something you would buy and eat normally. You go for one thing and walk out with a trolly full. Oh no! You’ve not only wasted money but also time and you haven’t even cured your hunger yet. I’’l be your problem solver. Here’s your shopping list, your dinner and maybe ever lunch leftovers all in one. Keeping it health and delicious with all the Autumn vibes.
Sweet Potato or Pumpkin
Before we get to the easy peasy shopping list, let’s get to the bottom of a real Autumn question. Sweet potato or pumpkin? It’s very clear Autumn is here (haha that rhymes without me even planning it), so do you choose pumpkin or sweet potato? Both nutritious, both vegan/vegetarian compatible, they both belong to the orange food group and both are hearty and soul warming, very fitting for the cooler temperatures. So, which is it? For this recipe you can substitute or use both. I am a lover of both sweet potato and pumpkin soups so it was a must to create a recipe that was compatible to both ingredients. Either alternate or join them together - it’s the best of both worlds.
To make the recipe Pumpkin based (the recipe written below is based on being a sweet potato soup), replace the sweet potatoes with one medium sized pumpkin with skin. I use the Golden Nugget pumpkins because the skin makes for a thick soup but it remains a natural golden colour instead of browning. You can also use Queensland Blue or Japanese Pumpkin but I would not use the Butternut pumpkin with the skin on for this recipe. Chop and bake with other ingredients for 20-25 minutes of 200℃. Then boil with 3-4 cups of water and follow the remaining recipe from there. For half and half simply half the sweet potatoes and use half a medium pumpkin. Bake the pumpkin and sweet potatoes and follow as above. Easy, right? And you don’t have to choose if the decision is too hard. If it isn’t, go with which ever takes your fancy. Now…
Shopping list
3 large sweet potatoes
vegetable oil
3 small or 2 large onions
ginger
2 carrots
pepper
4 cups vegetable stock
ciabatta bread
wasabi peas (optional for a kick)
coconut milk
herbs - coriander (optional)
This seems like a lot but it makes a lot too! You can half the shopping list and thus, the recipe if you are only cooking for one and do not eat left overs much. I have put coconut milk as optional because many people do not like making their soups creamy (even when keeping it vegan). From a personal point-of-view (I know you didn’t even ask me but sharing it anyway) I ALWAYS like my soups creamy and very often this is vegan with coconut milk/cream. It not only makes it silky but it also adds a fresh element amongst the heavily cooked ingredients in this recipe and many other Autumn dishes. The only option if you do not want to douse the entire soup with the creamy touch, you can also serve the coconut milk as a swirl on top as I have done so in the photos. This is often done with sour cream when none vegan to create a dual flavour combination - hot with cold, mild with dominant, nutty with spicy - experienced at the same time.
Mass Make and Store
Storing this bad boy is super easy and even easier to heat up when hungry but have no time. Place the soup into a freezer proof container and either remove from the freezer at least 6 hours before meal-time or place into a microwave set on the “defrost” mode (sometimes you just forget this 6 hour before business or you aren’t thinking of dinner when you first wake up). You can also remove from the freezer and leave to sit for 1 hour and then place on the stove top in a medium pot to heat gladly. This does make the soup slightly nicer than just microwaving it completely.
Two simple rule in freezing and defrosting food;
make sure you allow the soup too cool before placing into containers and freezing. If you do not cool hot food, especially meat and dairy, before freezing there can be a bacteria that forms from the condensation and then this gets trapped inside.
the only other point worth mentioning when freezing then heating left over food is only reheat once, again especially meat and dairy. The food has already been heated and cooled once in the initial cooking stage so doing so 2 or 3 more times can be problematic. The same bacteria can form when you constantly heat and cool food, which can be toxic to the human body.
Sweet Potato Soup with Crushed Wasabi Peas
Inspired by Downshiftology
Ingredients
3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 small white onions, sliced
2 centimetres fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 large carrots
1/2 tsp pepper
4 cups vegetable stock (low salt if store bought but home made is best)
Ciabatta bread for serving
Wasabi peas, pumpkin seeds for serving roughly chopped
Other serving ingredients; coriander, coconut milk, chilli flakes
Method
In a large pot, place the oil along with the carrots and onions. Cook for 6-8 minutes or until the carrots begin to soften. Add the garlic and ginger. Cook for a further minute.
Add the sweet potato, pepper and stock, mixing well, and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover and cook for 15-20 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are very soften (they often turn quite mushy).
Remove from the heat and blend using a hand held blender (if you prefer/have a food processor use this). If the soup is not blending due to lack of liquid, add extra water until everything is emulsified. The soup should be thick but completely blended together. Season to taste.
Serve hot with fresh ciabatta on the side as well as crushed wasabi peas and pumpkin seeds on top.
