Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup

Friday is either pizza-night or soup with focaccia-night. When it’s the soup option, it has to pretty hearty – it is after all, the main meal of our day. The recipe easily serves four, but the two of us eat it in one sitting.

This soup will be something to look forward to when coming home from a bitterly cold, winter evening. It’s sweet, spicy, lusciously thick, and extremely hearty. I swirled some coconut butter on top for added creaminess and to act as a coolant from the heat. Feel free to use sour cream or even yoghurt.

CHIPOTLE SWEET POTATO SOUP
4 servings
Inspired by Homesick Texan - Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients
½ t oil
1 small onion, roughly diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, smashed
600 g (1⅓ lb) carrots, unpeeled, chopped into ½ inch pieces
450 g (1 lb) sweet potato, unpeeled chopped, into ½ inch pieces
4 g (½ t) “Better than Bouillon” chicken/vegetable stock base*
2 t ground cumin
20 g (4 t) sugar
Chipotle peppers in abodo sauce, depending on your heat tolerance^
Salt and pepper, to taste

* Better than bouillon is a concentrated paste, which you add water to, to make a stock. If this is not available, use stock cubes or ready-made stock instead of water in step 2.

Method
1. In a large soup pot, fry the onion and garlic in the oil until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Add the carrots, sweet potato and stir. Add 1 l (4 c) of just-boiled water, then add the concentrated stock paste and stir. Bring back to the boil and cook on a bubbling simmer (not quite a simmer, but not quite a boil) for about 10-15 minutes or until your carrots/sweet potatoes are tender (test their softness with a knife).

3. Take off the heat, and either blitz using a liquidizer or a hand blender until smooth. Add anything between 0.25-0.5 l (1-2 c) of additional water to thin down the soup, as required.

4. Add the cumin, sugar, chipotle peppers and season. Blitz again until well blended. Enjoy!