Description:
The sweet potato is commonly referred to as a "super-food", and in this dish we will use the super-powers of this root vegetable to unlock the glories of a classic, simple, and cheap soup. This recipe was adapted from a Meatless Mondays article and will begin our attempt to showcase vegetarian and vegan cuisine on the blog. This recipe does call for a blender, so if you do not have one, you may need to improvise or borrow one from a friend. In the end, this soup compliments a cool, fall day by offering your palate a sweet and creamy escape from the toils and troubles of day to day life. Enjoy!
Categorization:
Type: Main Dish
Dietary Orientation: Herbivore
Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 20 min
Eating Time: 1 min 14 sec
Servings: 8
Relative Itemized Cost:
$2.00 - Sweet Potatoes
$1.65 - Texas Leeks
$0.50 - Garlic
$2.32 - Vegetable Broth (w/ coupon)
$0.98 - Evaporated Milk
$2.00 - Parmesan Cheese
$0.00 - Fresh Basil (homegrown)
$9.45 - $1.18 per serving
Ingredients needed:
1 1/4 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 leeks, white ends rinsed and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon sugar (I used brown sugar, but you could use whatever is on hand)
4 cups low sodium vegetable broth
12 ounce can of evaporated milk
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
1/4 cup basil, fresh or dried
Cooking Instructions:
1. COOK IT! Place chopped sweet potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Bring water to a boil and cook potatoes uncovered for 8-9 minutes. You will know they are done when they are easily pierced with a fork.
2. While the sweet potatoes are boiling away, prepare the leeks by warming the olive oil in a skillet over medium/high heat. Once the oil is hot add the minced garlic and cook for 1 minute (stirring occasionally). Once the garlic is fragrant, add the chopped leeks and sugar. This fragrant concoction will need to cook for about 5 minutes or until the leeks are nice and tender, stir occasionally.
3. Back to the sweet potatoes: drain the water from the potatoes and let sit while the leeks are cooking in the skillet. Once the leeks are done, add the leek mixture to the potatoes as well as the vegetable broth. Let soup mixture simmer for about 5 minutes.
4. BLEND IT! Here comes the fun part. Now that your soup has had time to heat up and the flavors are beginning to mesh, pour the soup into a blender and puree until smooth. My blender only has a 20 ounce capacity, so I had to blend and transfer until the entire soup was silky smooth. However, this was not as painful as I had anticipated as the cooked potatoes blended quite quickly and easily.
5. Once the soup has been blended, add the can of evaporated milk. Let the soup simmer for about 1 minute or until the mixture has been heated through. By this time the color should be consistent and your soup should have a nice creamy texture.
6. TASTE IT! One of the most important aspects of cooking is tasting your dish. Now is the perfect time to grab a spoon, take a dip, and contemplate on any missing ingredients. My dish needed some salt and pepper, but I did not have salt on hand (ahhhh!) so I used garlic salt instead.
7. SERVE IT! Now that you are happy with the end result, serve it! A dollop of Parmesan cheese and fresh or dried basil compliment this soup in so many ways. Fortunately, I had some dried basil on hand from a recent harvest, and some Parmesan left over from pizza night.
