Recipe: Sweet-Potato Soup with Ginger and Chipotle
Beautiful, fast, delicious, thrifty, and good for you. What more could you ask of a soup? Ginger and hot sauce add zing while the swirl of yogurt makes it look like a fancy restaurant dish. If you remember to tuck a few sweet potatoes into the oven while you are baking something else, this soup comes together in just a few minutes. Or microwave the sweet potatoes just before you need them.
Active time: 20 minutes, starting with baked sweet potatoes. Total time: 25 minutes. Makes 6 servings, 1 cup each.
2 large sweet potatoes, about 2 pounds total
1 tablespoon butter
½ large onion, diced (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon peeled and minced fresh ginger
3 cups milk, preferably 2% milk fat
2 teaspoons chipotle hot sauce or ¼ teaspoon ground chipotle or cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
Method
- Scrub sweet potatoes, wrap in foil, and bake until completely soft. Cool potatoes in foil to help contain any leaks. (See note below to microwave sweet potatoes instead.)
- Melt butter in a medium pan over medium heat. Peel and dice onion and add to pan. Scrape ginger peel off with spoon, mince ginger, and add to pan. Cook onion and ginger in butter until onion is soft and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally, turning down heat if onion seems about to burn.
- Meanwhile, unwrap sweet potatoes, slice lengthwise and across to cut into quarters, and slide off skins. Trim off any discolored or tough spots.
- If you are using dried pepper, add it to onion mixture after onions are soft. Stir once or twice, then add sweet potatoes. Mash sweet potatoes as you add milk. Add hot sauce if you are using it.
- Reduce heat to medium low. Heat through for about five minutes.
- Optionally, process soup for 5 or 10 seconds in a blender or a food processor fitted with a blade. This will create a smoother soup with more uniform flavor.
- To serve, ladle soup into bowls and top each with of yogurt. Refrigerate any extra for up to four days.
Tips and notes
- For fun or fancy occassions, pipe the yogurt onto the soup in swirls or patterns. Put yogurt in a plastic bag, cut off a tiny corner of the bag, and press bag gently to push yogurt out the hole. Write your guests' initials to create edible place cards.
- Baking sweet potatoes and sliding off the skins is much faster than peeling, chopping, and boiling them. You'll save energy too if you already have the oven going.
- To microwave sweet potatoes, scrub well and pierce each with fork a few times to let the steam escape while they cook. Put on a microwave-safe plate and cook on high for 5 minutes. Turn potatoes over and microwave on high until soft all the way through, about 5 more minutes.
- For variety, top sweet-potato soup with a few springs of chives or a dusting of cinnamon and a few chopped walnuts.
