As garnishes, shelled pistachios and baked flatbread strips add crunch to this Sweet Potato Soup. Some drizzles of yogurt are a third garnish.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Leeks, onions, garlic, cumin, olive oil, low-sodium chicken broth and, of course, sweet potatoes, all lend their flavors to this Sweet Potato Soup.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
When I brought sweet potato soup from the Times Leader test kitchen to the newsroom this week, not everyone loved the sweetly savory dish.
But everyone seemed to relish the garnishes.
“I’d give it 2.5 out of 5. That extra half point is for the toppings,” said news editor Liz Baumeister, who would have preferred a sweet potato soup spiced with ginger and cinnamon rather than cumin. “It wasn’t quite what I was expecting.”
“The toppings are a nice complement,” reporter Margaret Roarty said of the pistachios and baked flatbread strips I’d sprinkled on the soup, and she also enjoyed the soup itself. “It reminds me of a butternut squash soup I make.”
“I’m not the biggest fan of sweet potatoes, but I thought I’d give it a try,” sportswriter Kevin Carroll said, adding the soup left him wanting “more flavor.”
Page designer Ashley Bringmann also felt the soup needed more flavor, yet said she liked it overall, “and I enjoyed all the toppings.”
“I’m a big fan of sweet potatoes,” newsroom intern Carrie Wagner said. She pronounced the soup “very good” and accepted a bit more, which pleased me so much I announced to the rest of the room: “Somebody took seconds! Success!”
I’m not sure how much of the soup’s success was due to the garnishes, but they are what led me to choose this recipe, which I found at recipetineats.com/. Without the garnishes, the soup is still bursting with good-for-you beta carotene, thanks to the sweet potatoes. But it can look very plain, sort of like a puree you’d spoon feed a baby.
With the garnishes, I think it looks quite intriguing.
The recipe offers several suggestions for garnishes, including pistachios or pumpkin seeds (I chose pistachios) and also fried or baked flatbread strips (I cut two tortillas into strips and baked them with a little olive oil at 350 for about 10 minutes, flipping them once).
In the kitchen, I also drizzled a swirl of plain yogurt over the first two servings, and Mark said the soup tasted better with the yogurt mixed in.
Later, in the newsroom, I realized with chagrin that I had neglected to bring along the yogurt, so the taste testers didn’t have that particular option, which might have satisfied those who craved more flavor. Sigh. It was just too hectic of a day for me to make a yogurt run.
But here is the recipe I used.
SWEET POTATO SOUP
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, or more oil
2 onions, diced
2 leeks, white and pale green part only, quartered and sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 tablespoon cumin
1.25 quarts chicken or vegetable stock. low sodium
1.5 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cream, any type, or an extra knob of butter
Suggested garnishes: Something to drizzle such as extra virgin olive oil, cream, yogurt or sour cream, and something crunchy such as flatbread strips, croutons, pistachios, pepitas (pumpkin seeds) or crispy fried shallots
Instructions:
Sauté aromatics – Heat the oil and melt the butter in a large heavy based pot over medium heat. Cook the onion, leek and garlic for 5 minutes until softened. Add the sweet potato and cumin, cook for another 3 minutes, stirring regularly.
Simmer – Add the stock, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, then cook for 20 minutes at a gentle simmer until the sweet potato is very tender (no lid).
Blitz – Remove the pot from the stove. Blitz with a hand-held immersion blender until smooth. Stir in cream.
Garnish – Ladle into bowls. Drizzle with yogurt, cream or olive oil with a sprinkle of something crunchy.
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