Spicy Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup

By Victoria Abbott aka Victoria and Mary Jane Maffini 

A few years ago, during a family health crisis, a number of good friends (including our wonderful Linda/Erika) saved many days by leaving meals at the front door from time to time.  I would come dragging in from the hospital in the night thinking I’d open a tin of mushroom soup again, and, presto! there would be something tasty and homemade, just needing to be reheated.  

Among our friends now, one is in hospital while his wife is busily driving back and forth and preparing for a big move.  They are vegetarians and so when we looked for a soup recipe to give them a boost, that was a factor.  They are also adventurous eaters, so I knew they’d like the curry and coconut combo. 

I had served a variation of this purchased from a wonderful local source and really wanted to try to make it myself, using the ingredients on the container and combing through a number of recipes on the Internet until I was able to combine things to suit.  

This is dairy-free and I think gluten-free too.  It's also quite fresh and delicious and it is also quick to make and very easy.

Here is the result. We will be adding it to our regular soup routine because we loved it, and it’s pretty easy, fast and tasty. It is spicy and gingery.  You could increase or decrease ingredients to suit yourselves. I know you all do that anyway!  

Spicy Sweet Potato, Lentil and Coconut Soup

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped (or leftover cooked sweet potatoes)

¾ cup red lentils, rinsed

1 large onion

2 – 3 tsp prepared ginger OR 1 two-to-three inch piece of ginger root, sliced (more if it’s your favorite thing!)

1 tablespoon Thai green curry paste

1 can unsweetened coconut milk

4 cups vegetable broth for vegetarian version or chicken broth if you prefer.

Juice of 1 lime

2 tsp. sea salt

 

Optional Fresh coriander or toasted coconut for garnish or a tablespoon of sesame oil to drizzle on soup in bowls.

Directions

Chop onion. 

Heat oil in a large pot.  Sauté onion and ginger for five to ten minutes until softened. Addt he  curry paste and cook for another minute or so.  

Add stock and coconut milk, sweet potato chunks and lentils.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat. Cook for about twenty minutes, until potatoes are tender and lentils soft.  Drain sweet potatoes and lentils. 

Purée soup with an immersion blender.  You could use a food processor or blender, but the immersion blender saves on dishwashing and does a great job.

Add lime juice and salt to taste. 

 

 

If using toasted coconut as a garnish, toast on a metal tray for ten minutes at 350 F. oven.

We transferred ours to mason jars to transport it.  Next time, we'll try freezing it too.  But alas, both times we made this soup, although it makes quite a bit, there was none left.   

Serve in large bowls. Garnish with cilantro leaves or toasted coconut.

Enjoy!

The shadowy figure known as Victoria ABBOTT is actually the mother daughter collaboration of artist Victoria Maffini and her mystery writer mother, Mary Jane Maffini.  





Together they have created four books in the popular book collector mystery series.  

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