Sweet Potato Peanut Soup

Tonight Rachel and I made African-inspired Sweet Potato Peanut Soup:

So much carotene!!  This spiced soup is chock full of vegetables and is really a meal in itself.  It was pretty easy to make, although we had a couple mishaps--I'll help you avoid those with a couple tips in the recipe: 

Recipe:
Sweet Potato Peanut Soup

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1.5 pounds sweet potatoes, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
• 5 cups water
• 3 teaspoons pepper
• 3 tablespoons natural peanut butter
• peanuts, chopped, for garnish
• cilantro, chopped, for garnish

First, chop all of the vegetables so they're ready to go.  (It's generally a good practice when cooking to have everything ready to go before starting.)  Once everything is ready, heat oil and garlic in a soup pot over medium-high heat and add the onions once it's hot.  Cook for about 5 minutes until the onions become translucent and tender.  Add the curry powder and cayenne and cook for another minute or two.  Next, add the sweet potatoes, celery, carrots, tomatoes, and water to the pot.  The water should more than cover the vegetables.  Bring to a boil and boil for about 20 minutes.  You know the soup is ready when the vegetables are tender and easily poked with a fork. 

Once the soup is cooked, blend the soup, pepper, and peanut butter together in a food processor.  Here's where I struggled!  Make sure you don't over-fill the food processor.  You'll probably need to blend the soup in batches, so make sure you divide the pepper and peanut butter between the batches.  The soup leaked/exploded out of the food processor when I blended it, causing the clean-up process to take much longer than necessary.  Once the soup is thoroughly blended together, garnish with chopped cilantro and crushed peanuts and enjoy! 

Comments:
This soup had an excellent flavor.  That said, Rachel and I both agree that the texture of the soup wasn't perfect this first time around.  The blending fiasco led me to under-blend the soup, meaning it was a little too chunky rather than more puréed.  I also think there was too much broth in the soup (I adjusted the recipe above to make up for that).  All in all, I liked the soup: it was a substantial and nutritious meal with a great spiced, nutty flavor.  Hopefully I'll learn from my mistakes this time around and it will be even better next time.    

Now it's time to eat some of those Christmas cookies...