Russet and sweet potatoes combine in this creamy, blended soup, but the secret ingredient is the peanut butter swirled in toward the end.
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 chopped medium onion (about 1 cup)
- 1 chopped celery rib (about 1/3 cup)
- 1 peeled and chopped large sweet potato (about 4 cups)
- 1 peeled and chopped large russet potato (about 3 cups)
- 4 cups water
- 1/2 cup + 2 teaspoons creamy peanut butter
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne
- 3 tablespoons crushed unsalted roasted peanuts
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and celery; cover and cook for 5 minutes, until soft.
2. Add the potatoes and water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes – the vegetables should be tender.
3. Transfer the soup to a blender and process until smooth, working in batches if necessary to avoid overloading the blender. Return the pureed soup to the pot.
4. Ladle 1 cup soup into a small bowl, and stir in the peanut butter. Return the peanut butter mixture to the soup, and season with the salt and cayenne.
5. Reheat the soup over medium heat until hot (about 5 to 10 minutes).
6. Ladle the soup evenly into 6 bowls, and sprinkle evenly with the peanuts and chives.
Note: To crush the peanuts, place in a heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag and roll over them with a rolling pin. Just don’t crush too hard or you’ll wind up with peanut butter instead of perfect little peanut tidbits:
If you don’t have a rolling pin on hand, any can of beans or soup works just as well:
Nutrition Info: 6 servings (about 1 cup soup, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons peanuts, 1/2 teaspoon chives), 331 calories per serving
Tasting Notes: This soup was super rich and creamy, and quite thick – it will practically coat your spoon, which I loved. The sweetness of the peanut butter and sweet potato is quite pronounced, but balanced by the savory elements in the dish. The chives provide just the right bite on top, and the peanuts give just the right crunch. This soup is definitely elegant enough to serve guests, and would make a lovely first course at a dinner party. Note that leftovers don’t reheat very well.
Rating: 4
Update: If chives aren’t your thing, or you just want to try this soup with different herbs, it’s a great recipe for playing around. I decided to try two alternate versions, the first using licorice-tinged tarragon.
The result felt vaguely French, with the subtle licorice notes providing a nice contrast to the sweet peanut butter.
For more of a Thai-inspired dish, try sprinkling with cilantro.
In both versions, I used slightly smaller sweet potatoes and russet potatoes, closer to 14 ounces each. I also used my food processor instead of my blender, which didn’t do quite as good a job of making the soup perfectly smooth. However, I enjoyed the occasional small chunk of vegetable.
Overall, this version of the soup was lighter, not as coat-your-spoon thick, and the nuance of the russet potato was more easily detectable in contrast to the sweet potato and peanut butter. You’ll have slightly smaller portion sizes as a result.
Vegan Chronicle 