Curried Sweet Potato Soup

Business and I love Indian food. I like the vibrant colors of their curries, the spicy in their vegetable dishes and the richness in all the sauces.

Every so often, we think it's a good idea to order in Indian food. It's a great idea until the next morning when I'm so thirsty and puffy from all the salt in the food, I feel like I have a food hangover. I don't blame the restaurants, they need to appeal to the common palate, and the truth is most people in North America are used to a lot of salt.

So following each take out experience, I get even more encouraged to cook our own version of Indian food at home, sans copious amounts of salt.

In the nature of the theme of January (stay tuned and you'll soon figure it out), I made an Indian Curry, Sweet Potato Soup. It turned out great, smooth and creamy, a little smokey but with floral tones that really brighten it up and make it feel light. A great start to a light, Indian meal (recipe to follow).

Typically, I have seen recipes where the sweet potato is boiled or steamed before becoming the pureed, creamy base of the soup. I decided to roast my sweet potatoes, first dicing them into dice sized pieces and then tossing them with ground spices and coconut oil and ghee. They roasted for over an hour in a hot oven, filling our whole house with the wonderful scent of spice. Also, I found the roasting brought out the sweetness in the potatoes enough that they naturally balanced out the heat from the red chili I used.

While the potatoes were roasting, I made a homemade chicken stock, which I used to thin out the soup once it was pureed. You could just also use a store bought chicken, or vegetable stock but it's so easy to make your own, I have a hard time spending money on the store bought stuff.

Curried, Roast Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients:

3 lbs. Sweet Potato, diced into 1cm cubes
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
2 tbsp. ghee, melted
1 tbsp. Turmeric
1 tbsp. Cumin seeds
1 tbsp. Coriander seeds
2 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. paprika
1-3 tsp ground red chilies
3-4 cups of homemade stock
Cream of the top of a can of coconut milk
Fresh cilantro

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

1. Mix the melted oil and ghee with the ground spices.
2. Pour the mixture over the diced sweet potato, on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

3. Roast the potatoes in the oven for an hour.
4. Put the roasted sweet potatoes into a large pot and pour about half of the stock into the pot.
5. Start to puree the mixture with an emulsion blender, add more stock as needed to thin our the soup.
6. Place the pot on medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cook for at least 10 minutes.
7. Ladle into bowls, and finish with a dollop of coconut cream, and some fresh chopped cilantro.


This recipe has been linked to: Fat Tuesday, Slight Imdulgent Tuesdays, Hearth and Soul Hop