Easy Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup

08 Oct Easy Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup

I love this soup. Well I love all soup, but I particularly love this soup because it’s so easy to make, has just the right amount of sweetness with a little kick and it’s full of anti-aging vitamins and fiber.   One serving of this stuff will fill you with Vitamin A plus tons of Vitamin C, fiber and potassium.   The only pain when making this soup is chopping the veggies, but that’s the deal with every soup. To save time, I like to chop the peppers, onion, celery and garlic and peel the sweet potatoes first. Then as the soup pot heats up and you cook the peppers, onion, celery and garlic, start chopping the sweet potatoes.  And a handy tool for making “creamy” blended soups like this one is an immersion hand blender.  It’s a hand held tool with covered blades at the end to immerse in soups or sauces for easy pureeing and blending. You can buy it for less than $25 at any store that sells kitchen appliances.   Or just use your blender.

Easy Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup

This recipe makes about 10 cups of soup and about 7 servings (approximately 1 and 1/2 cups per serving)

INGREDIENTS

• Extra virgin olive oil, as needed
• 2 red bell peppers, chopped
• 1 large white onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• Sea salt, as needed
• 4 large sweet potatoes or 5 medium, peeled and chopped small (so they cook faster)
• 5 cloves garlic, minced or grated
• 64 ounces low sodium organic chicken stock or veggie stock
• 5 to 7 dashes of nutmeg
• 4 tablespoons organic honey

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat large soup pot over medium high heat.  Once the pot is hot, add about two or three tablespoons of olive oil.  Once oil is hot, add peppers, onion, and celery and sauté about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally until softened.  Add a few pinches of sea salt.
2. Stir in sweet potatoes, making sure to coat them in the oil and veggie mixture.  Add another good size pinch of sea salt and continue to sauté and stir occasionally for about 10 minutes or so.
3. Add garlic and sauté for one minute.  Stir in organic chicken or veggie stock and bring soup to a very gentle simmer.  Reduce heat to medium low and continue to cook for about 25 or so minutes (whatever you have time for), stirring occasionally and reducing heat as needed (don’t boil the soup it should be at a very gentle simmer only).
4. Puree the soup either with a hand immersion blender or in batches in your blender.  Return to soup pot.
5. Season with ½ heaping teaspoon sea salt, honey and nutmeg.   Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly (you may need to add more salt to balance the sweetness).  Enjoy!

SO, WHAT’S THE NUTRITION BALANCE?

This recipe is mostly carbohydrates with a very small amount of fat.  I like having a protein like pork or chicken on the side for a balanced fat-burning meal.