Leslie’s Sweet Potato & Corn soup

Expectations:

The prep for this is quick – it’s really cutting the sweet potato, onion and garlic.  It typically takes me 5 – 10 minutes to rinse and chop and then cooking time is about 20 – 25 minutes.  I have made this weeknights and weekends.

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato (peeled and chopped into small, 1 inch or so) chunks (squares or rectangles work best).

1 small onion (Remove the outer papery skin, cut in half and then ‘dice’ the onion into small squares. Put aside).

2 or 3 garlic cloves.  Remove the papery outer skin, cut off the ‘hard’ part at the top and then cut into a small dice (or mince using a garlic masher) to about the size of small seeds. Put aside.

4 cups (or 5) of chicken or vegetable stock.

Steps to put this on your table:

1. Preheat olive oil (about 1/4 cup) on medium low heat a large saucepan or stockpot.
2. When the pan is warmed up, gently sauté (stir them around frequently with a spoon or a spatula) the onions until they’re translucent. About 6 or 7 minutes.
3. Add the garlic to the onions in the pan and sauté with the garlic for another 3 or 4 minutes. Don’t let it burn, keep them moving or bring the heat down if your pan seems too hot.
4. Stir in about 4 cups (or 5) of chicken or vegetable stock. If you made stock from your chicken – awesome, use it! If you’re buying, one 32 oz. box should be fine, unless you want a little more soup, then use a box and a half.
5. Stir in the sweet potatoes. Add salt (maybe about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. you can add more at the end if needed)
6. Increase the heat to medium/medium high until the chicken stock reaches a simmer (bubbling but not a fast boil). When you’ve reached simmer, put a top on the pan & then reduce the heat to medium low. Let the vegetables simmer until the sweet potato is soft – probably 20 – 25 minutes, depending on how big it was cut.
7. When the sweet potato feels fairly soft, bring up the heat again and add in the frozen corn (probably about 1 cup – but you can view how much looks right, you probably want about 1/2 corn, 1/2 sweet potato). Cool at a simmer (bubbling but not a fast boil) stirring occasionally until the corn is cooked through, probably 4 or 5 minutes at most. Test the corn when it’s starting to look done as soon as it’s not frozen and tastes ‘right’ then turn off the heat & take the pan off of the heat. Taste it to see if you want to add more salt, and also put in a generous shake or two of pepper.

Note: if you ladle for the kids first, then you can add a little bit (i.e. 1/2 tsp. or 1 tsp.) of Bajan or other hot pepper sauce to the remaining soup for the grown-ups.

It’s very nice in there but probably too spicy for the kids. Or you can put a little in your own bowl, if you have extra soup & want to use it a second time.

This is very flexible – very nice served with a salad, French bread or wheat bread on the side. If people are hungrier you can easily add in some cooked chicken to it to make it more substantial.

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