Sweet! (potato)

The African sweet potato & peanut soup went over very well. :)

Everyone wanted the recipe, which was a challenge because I took three different versions off the internet, picked and chose what sounded good from one or the other, and sort of did this on the fly...

But here's what I ended up sending out by email to the guests after:



Here is the African sweet potato & peanut soup recipe from today as best as I can reconstruct what I did. :) Glad you liked it! (and glad there's a little left over for me...)

2 14oz cans vegetable broth
1 can diced tomatoes
1 large can (32 oz?) yams
1 small can sweet green chiles
1 bell pepper, diced (your choice of color! I used red and orange - pretty.)
2 medium shallots (or 1 lg onion) chopped
1 16 oz bag carrots, chopped
1 bunch green onions
2 cloves crushed garlic (or the equivalent in some other form - I like the frozen garlic cubes from Trader Joe's!)
1 cup peanut butter (I used Skippy crunchy)
1/2 cup salted peanuts, finely chopped (Planters or some such)
seasonings (there are lots of options here. Some recipes called for hot sauces, jalapeno peppers, cilantro, turmeric, etc. I just used 1 tsp. each of: pumpkin pie spice, ground ginger, and a curry powder blend, plus some salt and pepper as desired)


Chop the green onions, separating the while and green parts. Reserve some green for garnish, along with the chopped peanuts. In a large stock pot, sauté the shallots, onions, garlic and bell peppers for about 10 min. Add in the carrots, continue another 5 min. or so, then add seasonings, green chilies, and diced tomatoes. Continue on heat, stirring often for another 5 min.

Add vegetable broth and yams, bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, for 30 minutes or until vegetables are getting soft. With a potato masher, mash the yams and carrots thoroughly. (Other options here are also an immersion blender, if you're lucky enough to have one! ..or transferring contents to a blender or food processor to puree the whole lot and return to pot. I prefer a little chunkier texure, so the hand mashing suits me.)

After mashing/blending/pureeing, continue heating, testing for the right amount of salt & pepper, adjusting spices as needed. If you prefer the soup a little thinner, add a bit of water or cream (although this last one will definitely take it out of the vegan category...)

Serve hot in bowls with reserved green onions and chopped peanuts as garnish, with perhaps red pepper flakes or hot sauce as options for your wilder guests. Can easily make ahead and store in fridge overnight (I did!)



It was great to have this soup again. Glad I could figure out how. :)