Mayan Sweet Potato Soup

Mayan Sweet Potato Soup by Jessica Lacher-Feldman
photo by Thomas Little

Mayan Sweet Potato Soup

A soup inspired by my little babe is really sweet and the fact that it is a sweet potato soup is quite appropriate. Personally, I love a good sweet potato soup, and having created a sweeter one for the holidays with my Sweet Potato/Cranberry Soup I really enjoyed reading about this recent recipe submission that paired sweet potatoes with numerous spices. Created by Jessica Lacher-Feldman, the soup includes cumin, chili powder, and tabasco (to name a few key ingredients) that gives the soup a nice kick, which pairs nicely with the sweetness in the potatoes. The soup was also prepared with similar cooking mantra to myself–"cooking by taste and eye, adjusting as you go."  So, when preparing this soup be aware that the measurements are rough estimates and can modified based on your preferences (less spice, more sweet, etc). Check out Jessica's sweet potato recipe with a kick: 

 

Mayan Sweet Potato Soup

Guest Blogger: Jessica Lacher-Feldman

Ingredients:
water, enough to cover everything completely
1.5 quart cartons of Pacific organic chicken broth
5-6 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 large or two medium onions, chopped up
4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped up
1 raw chili pepper (I used an anaheim), remove seeds and chop
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of tabasco
2 tablespoons of agave nectar or sweetener to taste (optional - my sweet potatoes were kind of old)
2 tablespoons of cumin, to taste
a teaspoon of hot Mexican chili powder, to taste
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper 

Directions:
In a dutch oven or heavy pot, add the oil, sweet potatoes, onions, and garlic. Season with generous amounts of cumin and chili powder, along with pepper. Sautee and add a little water to the sweet potatoes, which will give the onions a little color.  Add the chili and let cook for five minutes or so. Add more water and chicken stock and bring to a low boil, reduce and simmer until tender.  Blend until smooth (I used a potato masher first, then the hand blender) taste and re-season with salt, tabasco, and pepper.  Add a touch of sweetener if soup has lost it's sweetness (not really necessary but it was for mine).

Garnish with toasted pumpkin seeds, crushed tortilla chips, cilantro, or whatever you like.

What are some other ways to prepare sweet potato as a soup?

Holiday Soup Redux Part Two—Christmas: Sweet Potato/Cranberry Soup

Sweet Potato/Cranberry Soup - Seriously Soupy

For the second installment of the Holiday Soup Redux series, I created a recipe that is my take on a traditional Christmas meal. However, figuring out exactly what makes a traditional Christmas meal can be rather daunting task, especially since every family has their own unique dishes, and those that are considered traditional (ham, fish, and turkey) didn't really inspire me nor could I choose which one was considered more traditional over the other. So, using Mel Torme's and Bob Well's 1944 classic "Christma's Song" and their famous opening line, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" as inspiration, I fell in love with the idea of doing something with chestnuts (what's more Christmas than chestnuts?!?)  However, this inspiration came to me the day before Christmas Eve and finding chestnuts the day before Christmas Eve proved to be yet another daunting task.  Moving on, I thought to myself, "what else just screams Christmas?"  Cranberries!  This resulted in a twist on a sweet potato soup that was infused with ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon to create a hearty and rather delicious soup that was also really quick and easy to make. Here's how to make this seriously soupy Christmas soup:

Sweet Potato and Cranberry Soup

Ingredients:
6 cups of water (2 cups of water for the cranberries)
* 1 cup of heavy cream (optional)
6 sweet potatoe, peeled and chopped up
2 cups of fresh cranberries
1/2 yellow onion, chopped up
1 whole parsnip, chopped up
1 piece of ginger,minced
1 tablespoons of nutmeg
1 tablespoons of cloves
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste
* used for the cranberry and potato mixture

Sweet potatoes and ginger for the soup

Cranberries for the soup

Directions:
Put water in a pot and set to medium boil. Chop up the sweet potatoes, onion, parsnip, and ginger into squares and place in the slightly boiling pot of water for 30-45 minutes. In a separate and smaller pot, add 2 cups of water and add the cranberries (if using fresh). Set to a low flame and cover. The cranberries will start to pop as they open up, when this happens (about 5 minutes later) add cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and some sugar. About 10 minutes later the seeds will be released and the water will turn red. This indicates that the cranberries are ready. Turn off the flame and set aside this mixture. Add the heavy cream, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, salt, and pepper to the sweet potato mixture. Cover for another 10 minutes and check with a fork to check if the potatoes are soft. If soft, blend the mixture together with a hand blender until it turns into a puree. With a slotted spoon scoop up the cranberries and place them in the soup (try to use all of the cranberries). I also added about a cup of the remaining cranberry/water mixture and blended again. I also left my puree slightly chunky with some cranberry pieces because I like it chunky, you can puree to taste. I also topped the soup off with a few cranberries for a garnish.

Cranberries boiling

P.S. I used the heavy cream, partially because I still had it from the potato and leek soup recipe, but also because I wanted to create a creamier soup. It can be omitted, based on your dietary restrictions and preferences.

Seriously Soupy Serena