Ya’ know those dishes that have so many ingredients in it, you’re not sure which ones to highlight in the title? This is one of them! With sweet potatoes, carrots, chicken, onions, ginger, garlic, coconut milk and spices, this soup is sure to have you saying, “Hmmm…. this is one of the weirdest and best soups I’ve ever had.” Also, I’ve noticed that most of the soups I cook are either dairy based and fatty, or broth based and wimpy. This is probably the healthiest soup I know how to make and can easily be made vegetarian/vegan.
This recipe can serve about 7-8 people comfortably. Start with cutting up 2 large sweet potatoes, leaving the skins on, as well as about 4 or 5 carrots. I recommend cutting the carrots much smaller than I cut them in this photo. They ended up taking longer to cook than the sweet potatoes. Arrange them on a pan (crowding is okay), drizzle with olive oil, cover with foil, and stick in a preheated 350* oven for at least 30 minutes or until they’re tender.
Once the potatoes are tender and partially cool, peel off the skins and put them in a blender. Add a can of chicken broth and pulverize. Set aside in a bowl.
Be aware. This will look like baby food. Do not fear. Now put the tender carrots in a blender with a can of coconut soup and pulverize.
Finely dice 1/2 onion. Grate or very finely dice about 3 cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of ginger and the zest of a small orange or clementine. I used much more than 1 tablespoon of ginger because I wanted to use it up and I’ll tell you, the taste overpowered the other flavors in the end. A little goes a very long way.
I was lucky to find split chicken breasts for $.89 a pound, which is crazy cheap. It takes a few more minutes to take the bones and skin out, but seriously, for $.50 per chicken breast, get over it and cut the bone out!
Chop it up, yo.
In a hot, greased pot add the chicken, onion, garlic, ginger and orange zest on medium high heat.
Add the pureed sweet potatoes and carrots.
Now add your spices. I added quite a bit of chili powder, some cumin, onion powder, paprika, hot sauce and salt. If you prefer it spicy, throw in that cayenne! Also, feel free to add these spices while you’re sautéing the chicken and veggies for some crazy good flavor.
Should look a little something like this. You can eat it almost immediately or even let it cook up to an hour or so. I recommend letting this cook for about 20-30 minutes- just enough time to clean up the kitchen and set the table. Just make sure to keep stirring it so it doesn’t burn.
If I had some sour cream or plain yogurt I would have swirled it around to look awesome, but I didn’t have any so chili powder works okay. Hope you enjoy this strange, amazing soup! Yum!
2 Sweet potatoes – $2.60
1/2 Onion – $.32
5 Carrots – $.30
Coconut Milk – $1.29
Chicken stock – $.89
2 Chicken breasts – $1.07
8 Servings soup – $6.47
1 Serving – $.80
