This month's offering is soup. It's just that kind of month, kind of colder than usual, gray, and bitter. Oh yeah, and we were buried under feet of snow for the better part of the month. So soup it is. Plus, there is no better medium to show off the lovely texture of sweet potato as a creamy soup.
One of my pet peeves about foods like pumpkin and sweet potato is that a lot of people think that these foods taste like the things used to flavor it. Pumpkin tastes like pumpkin pie spice. Sweet potato tastes like those spices, or, even worse, mini marshmallows and gobs of sugar. So I forwent gobs of sugar, or even many spices, in favor of letting the sweet potato shine through. The sweetness of the sweet potato is so highlighted that I actually preferred it served with a little chopped bacon for a salty bite.
Creamy Sweet Potato Soup
3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 small onion, sliced
1 Tbsp. butter
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
salt to taste
cream and bacon for serving
In a large soup pot, saute the onion in butter over medium-low heat until it gets brown and soft, about a half an hour. Add the sweet potato, nutmeg, and water to almost cover. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Simmer until the sweet potatoes are very soft. Add salt to taste. Puree in batches. Makes probably 10 cups of puree. To serve, heat a desired amount of puree in a pot. Add cream to taste. I used about 1/2 cup of cream for every 4 cups of puree. 2 cups of soup makes a generous, meal-sized serving, especially topped with 2 slices worth of chopped cooked bacon. Makes 10-12 cups of soup, 5-6 meal-sized servings, or up to 12 first course servings.
2 comments:
YUM! Sweet potato soup with bacon! Delicious!
Wow, what an excellent point- the typical pumpkin and sweet potato soups taste the same and only of the spices added to them. I love that you let the natural sweet flavor of the sweet potato do the talking. It looks delicious, I'd love to try it!
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