This Sweet Potato and Peanut Soup is one of the Best of Healthy Seasonal Recipes. It is naturally gluten-free and vegan.
There are times in recipe development when the stars align and a keeper is born. This soup is one of those recipes. I realize I posted a soup last week, and I should probably mix it up for this week, but this recipe is so darned delicious I can’t wait. I just need to share it. I am obsessed!
I have been obsessing about developing it since Wednesday, February 22 to be exact. “Really, Sweet potatoes and peanuts? Okay, so what happened on February 22nd that made you think of such a bizarre idea?” you wonder. Well, funny you should ask…
The idea came from NPR, actually. I was listening to the Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor and it was George Washington’s birthday. Mr. Keillor mentioned that George Washington’s favorite foods were “mashed sweet potatoes with coconut, string beans with mushrooms, cream of peanut soup, salt cod, and pineapples.” And that was all I needed. My twisted little brain just mixed together sweet potato with coconut and peanut soup an obsession began.
And now it’s not just me who’s so crazed over it. I served it to friends and they were dying over it. After having some, my friend said she was thinking about it while she was lying in bed later. My husband who is often (a little too) reticent with the compliments even went out of his way to declare “This soup is special!” I think you’ll agree. I know George Washington would.
Serve with brown jasmine rice.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 3 medium onions diced, about 3 cups
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- 6 cups vegetable broth, such as Imagine No Chicken
- 2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 to 2-inch chunks
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 13-ounce can “lite” coconut milk
- ¾ cup unsalted roasted peanuts
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- Chopped cilantro, chopped peanuts and Sriracha for garnish
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring often until the onion is starting to soften and brown, 5 to 6 minutes. Add celery, broth, sweet potato and salt, increase heat to high, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer and cook, removing lid to stir occasionally, until the potatoes are very soft and fall apart when tested with a fork or tongs, about 15 minutes.
- Puree about half of the soup in a blender in two batches and add back to the pot. Puree the coconut milk and peanuts in a blender until smooth, about 1 minute. Stir the coconut mixture and the lime juice into the soup. Gently stir over low heat to warm through. Do not boil. Serve garnished with cilantro, chopped peanuts and Sriracha to taste.
This combination of sweet potatoes and peanuts sounds delicious – I can imagine how smooth and creamy it must be.
Seriously Katie, you rock. I cannot wait to make this (among a zillion of your other recipes). LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog. My #1 favorite!
[quote name=Julia V.]Seriously Katie, you rock. I cannot wait to make this (among a zillion of your other recipes). LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog. My #1 favorite![/quote]Oh Julia you are too kind. Thank you:) Enjoy.
This looks absolutely delicious! Definitely want to try this soup! 🙂
I just love any soup with coconut.
You are welcome to join in my food blogger event THE SOUP KITCHEN, here all bloggers are welcome, hope to see you participate soon.
This sounds like a delicious combination! I love sweet potatoes!
Would it be possible to make this with butternut squash? I happen to have it on hand but no sweet potatoes!
[quote name=Nina]Would it be possible to make this with butternut squash? I happen to have it on hand but no sweet potatoes![/quote]That sounds like a great substitution. Just adjust the cooking time as necessary. Be sure to report back how it works!
This sounds like an amazing mashup of African and Thai cuisines! Yum.
And it’s Fall, is there really such a thing as too many soup recipes? 😉
Yes! Two of my favorite cuisines! And I don’t think it is possible to have too many soups at this time of year. Thanks for stopping by!
At the risk of asking a silly question, are you saying that we should puree only half of the sweet potato mixture, leaving the other half chunky? Or were you saying that we should puree the entire sweet potato mixture, but doing half at a time?
Woops! Good catch. That sounds confusing doesn’t it? I meant to say that there is too much soup to fit into the blender in one batch, so you’ll have to puree it in two. I liked the texture smooth, personally. Thanks for the “silly question.” Though it was not silly at all!
I found this recipe on Pinterest, and I was so excited to make it because it looked so good! However, I was VERY disappointed once I made it. It was so bland. It had no flavor at all! 🙁 I kept re-reading the recipe to try to figure out what I had missed in the ingredients list. I was sure I had left something out, but no. I had to add a ton of spices to this to try to salvage it and make it edible. Sorry, it’s just not good.
Making this tonite…will report back. Just one thing Katie…yams (pictured) are not sweet potatoes. I will be using sweet potatoes.
[quote name=Rachel]I found this recipe on Pinterest, and I was so excited to make it because it looked so good! However, I was VERY disappointed once I made it. It was so bland. It had no flavor at all! 🙁 I kept re-reading the recipe to try to figure out what I had missed in the ingredients list. I was sure I had left something out, but no. I had to add a ton of spices to this to try to salvage it and make it edible. Sorry, it’s just not good.[/quote]Rachel,
I am so sorry to hear that. This recipe also features sweet potatoes but has more spice: http://tiny.cc/698aqw Maybe that would suit your tastes better. Thanks for trying the recipe and let me know if you try the other.
A friend just passed along this blog to me and I made this soup tonight, it was delicious! Not sure what happened with Rachel’s version but I thought there was plenty of good flavor, even served more as a sauce over ‘bland’ brown rice. I loved it, but you could try adding a little crushed red pepper to spice it up.
Leslie,
I am so glad you like the flavors. I agree about the crushed red pepper or what I did is I drizzled Sriracha on mine for a firey kick. My husband is a huge fan of it and we always have it on hand. Thanks for the feedback!
-Katie
Love this recipe, but I would sub coconut oil for the NON-healthy canola oil and use organic peanuts. Most nuts now are sprayed with pesticides. Thanks for the otherwise great recipe!
Yes thanks Vernajm. Coconut oil would be a great substitute for canola, and if you’re paleo cashews would be a good sub for the peanuts.
Mmmm! This sounds delicious. I did a similar thing recently with butternut squash and peanut butter – just a wild inspiration at the time, but it really works! The coconut, cilantro and lime is going make a lovely, exotic combination – oh, and it’s healthy too – yay!!
IanB recently posted…Why Some People Don’t Lose Weight on the Paleo Diet
This combo is so great. I totally believe that butternut squash would be good too.
Katie recently posted…hot and sweet slaw with jerk spice salmon
What, no pineapples?
I saw this recipe on Pintrest and can’t wait to try it, but while I was reading your inspiration the pineapple part jumped out at me. I just may have to make two batches and add a little pineapple in the second one. 🙂
I thought this soup was just lovely and full of flavour. The only changes I made was to not add the tsp of salt (my food needs to be lower sodium) and increased the lime juice to 1/4 cup. I will definitely make it again, thank you!