Introduction: Curry Sweet Potato Soup

By Done Dirt Cheap
About: Flemming changed the the world with a saucer and a bit of mold. Florence Nightingale changed the world with a tiny lamp, walking silent rounds among the wounded and dying. Einstein: chalk. Pasteur: chickens. A…

A dietician at work told me that sweet potatoes are probably the single most nutritious raw food that exists. She said that if I were to be trapped on a desert island with only one food I should choose high-grade dog food.
"In lieu of dog food, your second best bet would be sweet potato," she told me. That's when I started my love affair with this amazing food.
So here is my recipe for sweet potato soup serving 6. Be advised, this is a pureed soup so you'll need a food processor or blender.

Ingredients
3 medium-sized sweet potatoes
5 stalks of celery
2 cloves of garlic
1 medium onion
2 Tbsp kosher salt
4 Tbsp curry powder (or more or less, according to your taste for curry)
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 cups chicken stock
3 cups water 

I have a coconut in this photo but alas, the water was sour and I didn't use it. I don't think it adds much to the soup but it sure added to the kid-fun. What a cheap novelty!
Anyway, when it was a done and made, I didn't miss the coconut water so let's omit it.


Step 1:

Preheat the oven to 375 and cut up the washed sweet potatoes into small-ish chunks. Coat those with about half the oil on a baking sheet and sprinkle a bit of salt over the top. Bake them for an hour. Now is a good time to pour a gin and tonic and/or read to the kids. 

Next, cut up the onion and celery, coarse or fine. It doesn't really matter since it will all be zipped in the food processor later. Saute these in the rest of the oil until soft. Reduce heat to med/low before adding the garlic and the curry together. Cook that for 2 more minutes. 

Step 2:

At this point, if you have dawdled properly, the potatoes should be done roasting. Throw them like this right into the pot and stir the whole works. At this point it should smell incredible. You should also have your mixer kneading some bread dough, you know, if you're into that kind of thing. This is a good soup for sopping up.

Pour the chicken stock and water over the whole works and cover. Simmer about a half hour. This waiting period is the time we like to spend being nostalgic about things that are currently happening:
My six-year-old says, "Remember that time when I was six and we were making curry soup? The smell reminded me of Christmas!"

Then she tasted the coconut water and screwed up her face, "But the coconut milk tasted sour and gross... when I was six."


Step 3:

After it is all simmered soft transfer the soup to the food processor/blender in batches and then back into the pan. Cover and keep hot until dinner time.

Server with some sprigs of something and with a drip of cream to swirl. Drawing in soup with celery leaves- that's a first for the little ones!