Recipe Breakdown - The Happy Pear’s ‘Sweet Potato Coconut Chilli Soup’
Prep time:
15mins chopping (or less if you are quicker in the kitchen!)
15-25 minutes cooking
Clean up time: less than 5 minutes
4 large servings
This soup is another fantastic recipe from The Happy Pear. I have lived on it all winter, as you may have seen on my social media accounts! I’m a big soup fan but am not usually organised enough to make it on a weeknight. Most soup recipes require prep and then about an hour of cooking time. Since I’m slow in the kitchen this usually means any soup effort takes two hours plus. This is not ideal when looking for a quick, easy recipe. That is why I love this soup! It involves a bit of prep time, but once all the chopping is done it can be ready to eat in about 15-20 minutes. It also has only a few simple ingredients that are common pantry staples. When I first made this soup I was very skeptical at how so few, basic, ingredients could make a delicious soup…how I was proven wrong!
SWEET POTATO COCONUT CHILLI SOUP
This soup will leave you wanting more! It’s simple, delicious and really hits the spot.
Serves 4
30 mins
INGREDIENTS
2 small onions
2 cloves of garlic
1 fresh red chilli
2 big sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons oil
1½ teaspoons sea salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 x 400ml tin of coconut milk
1 litre vegetable stock
TO GARNISH
chilli flakes
fresh basil leaves (optional)
METHOD
Peel and finely chop the onions and garlic. Cut the chilli lengthways and finely chop (remove the seeds if you don’t like it too spicy). Chop the sweet potatoes into bite-size pieces - no need to peel, as most of the nutrition is in the skin.
Put the oil into a large saucepan over a high heat. Add the onions, chilli and garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the sweet potato along with the salt and black pepper, then reduce the heat to medium and leave to cook for 3-5 minutes with the lid on, stirring occasionally.
Now add the coconut milk and stock and turn the heat up high. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until the sweet potato is soft and cooked through. Remove from the heat and blend with a stick blender until smooth.
Top with chilli flakes and a few basil leaves, if you have them, and serve with decent slices of bread.
Ingredient, Preparation, and Clean Up Tips:
-The ingredients for this soup are so simple there are no tips for them! I like to use an organic veggie stock and coconut milk. I’m not great with spice so I remove the chilli seeds. I find this gives a hint of spice but nothing too overpowering.
-Once every thing is prepped the soup takes only a little time to make. I like to prep all my ingredients first, then follow the cooking instructions. If you are good at multi-tasking in the kitchen then this recipe will be even quicker. When I try to multi-task it usually ends up with missed steps and something burnt, or dropped!
-Make sure you don’t over do the pepper. I made this soup for my mum one night and accidentally added 1½ teaspoons of pepper instead of ½ a teaspoon. Needless to say it was VERY spicy. It’s amazing how such a small amount of pepper can impact the taste so much!
-I use the 10-15min simmer time to clean up the dishes. Usually it’s only a small pot for the vegetable stock, a chopping board, a knife, and a few measuring spoons.
-I brought my first immersion/stick blender a couple of years ago - it exceeded my expectations! Although I don’t use it often, it does make a few recipes much easier. They are also quite small and easy to store. I would never have attempted a recipe like this before. It would have involved transferring hot soup to my blender and back again. This would of been a disaster waiting to happen! With the stick blender it takes less than a minute to blend the soup smooth. If you are on the fence about a stick blender they are good to have in the kitchen. They can be quite cheap and are good for soups and also smaller recipes (sauces, hummus etc.) that are hard to blend in a regular blender. If you don’t have one I think a potato masher would do an alright job, but it would take a lot longer and it wouldn’t be quite as smooth. I haven’t tried this option though.
-I like to top the soup with kimchi, fried shiitake mushrooms, and sliced avocado. I haven’t actually tried it with chilli flakes or fresh basil leaves. The soup is so good I don’t think it really matters what you add on top. Some coconut yoghurt and sesame seeds would be tasty too.
-I have made this recipe to feed just me while my husband has been away. It still tasted great four days later, although I may have been a bit sick of it! This soup is also filling, a generous serve with a couple of slices of toast equals a decent dinner. I usually don’t need anything else to eat in the evening as sweet potatoes keep you fuller for longer. I think toddler would enjoy this soup but I haven’t managed to get him to try it yet (toddler life!). Maybe I need to disguise it as a smoothie…
Nourishment
Sweet Potato - Is one of my favourite vegetables, tasty and packed full of nutrition. They are a great source of vitamin A and C, as well as B vitamins. They are also high in fibre and antioxidants. Some of the healthiest populations in the world get 90% of their calories from sweet potatoes and they often live to 100 years old!
The Happy Pear are amazing brothers based in Ireland. They seem to be taking over the world with their recipes, food products, and endless energy and positivity. I love their latest cookbook, The Happy Pear - Recipes for Happiness. It has many more delicious, easy, recipes including Easy Pumpkin Pie, One-pot Spag Bol, and ‘Sausage’ Rolls. It also has great advice sections including, Lunch for little ones, All about plant-based eating, and Our fundamentals of happiness. It’s much more than a cookbook and a great starer guide if you are looking to live more plant-based. You can also learn more about The Happy Pear on my recommended page. I hope you enjoy some plant-based soup this weekend!
Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist or health professional. I have completed a certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from eCornell and have done in-depth research about plant-based living. The information I trust is mostly sourced from medical professionals that are leading the way in this plant-based revolution. Check out my recommended page for more info.
