Sweet potato, chili, and coriander soup

Smooth and creamy this sweet potato soup gets a boost from Asian flavors.

|
A Palatable Pastime
Serve this sweet potato soup with soft rolls for a light supper.

It’s a nice time of year for soups with things cooling down outside. And the flavors in this are so interesting! It is keeping with my theme of these past few days of having Asian food. I think I may have gone too long without making this type of cuisine so may end up binging on it. That happens from time to time as I go through phases of what I like to eat.

I was inspired to make this soup from a recipe by Susan. I did roast my sweet potatoes, hoping it would give them an even smoother velvety texture. Plus it shortened the time I was at the stove since I could just throw them in the oven and get back in there when my timer went off. And instead of using a stick blender I went with my food processor. I had a stick blender once. I gave it away. It was taking  up valuable space when I could have every other gadget in the world (I seemingly collect them all) so lightening up on at least one was a big step  on my part.

This made a nice light dinner as I served these with some pseudo Thai-Viet-Chinese soft rolls with roasted Peking duck and a dipping sauce. I did buy the duck already roasted from an Asian market to make things easy. You know how it is. I’ll post that one soon.

Sweet potato, chili, and coriander soup
Serves 4

1-1/4 lbs. sweet potatoes
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1/2  large onion, diced
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
2 cups chicken stock
2 teaspoons sambal oelek chili paste
5 ounces coconut milk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Prick potatoes with fork several times and wrap in foil.

3. Bake for 75-90 minutes or until fork tender; cool and peel.

4. Saute onion and garlic in the coconut oil until soft; let cool.

5. Puree sweet potatoes, cilantro, and cooked onion with one cup of the broth until smooth.

6. Pour puree into saucepan with remaining broth, sambal, and coconut milk; heat until hot enough to serve.

7. Garnish with extra cilantro if desired.

Related post on A Palatable Pastime: Roasted tomato soup

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Sweet potato, chili, and coriander soup
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Food/Stir-It-Up/2015/1109/Sweet-potato-chili-and-coriander-soup
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe