Creamy Sweet Potato Soup

As hot summer days begin turning into cooler, cloudier days my thoughts cannot help but turn to fall! It’s the time of year I begin dreaming of all things cool and comfort; sweaters, hot apple cider, crisp dewy mornings, and creamy warm soup.  So even though it’s still not exactly cool here in Kansas City, fall soup just sounded way too good to resist.

(And it was way too good to resist!)

This soup is very simple. Not many ingredients but packed of flavor, and surprisingly filling.  The star of the show is one of my favorites … sweet potatoes.

Creamy Sweet Potato Soup                                                                              Yield: about 6 servings
Ingredients:

• 6 small sweet potatoes
• 2 onions
• 1 stalk celery
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 1/3 cup, then 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (alternatively, I’m pretty sure coconut oil would be fabulous too!)
• Water
• Pinch of nutmeg
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

• In a small saucepan, let about 1/3 cup oil come to medium heat.
• Finely chop 2 onions, 2 cloves of garlic and a stalk of celery. Add to hot oil. Reduce heat to medium low and caramelize for about 25 minutes, salting lightly.
• Peel and chop sweet potatoes into cube sizes. Bring large pot of water to boil. Add salt and 2 tablespoons of oil into water along with sweet potatoes. Boil until cubes are tender.
• Strain the sweet potatoes and put into high powered blender or food processor along with 4 cups water and rest of oil.  Once finely blended, pour back into pot and add  3 more cups of water or to desired thickness.
• Mix in caramelized onions, garlic and celery. Whisk together for a few minutes until soup begins to coagulate. Add pinch of nutmeg, and salt and pepper, to taste.

Have a great weekend!

Spicy sweet potato and black bean enchiladas revisited

Okay, it’s clearly not a secret to anyone that knows me that I love sweet potatoes! 

I’ve told you guys probably countless times how I used to look forward to going to my grandma’s house because I knew she always had huge sweet potatoes. I would pick the biggest one, microwave it, and slather it in butter and salt. I’ve since started eating them in a bit healthier way, ha, but that is when my love of sweet potatoes began. And just last week, I talked about how I was sure to have my favorite food, sweet potato fries (with ketchup!) on my birthday. 

This likely explains how I came to “like” North Carolina SweetPotato Commission on Facebook.  I’m quite sure I took one look at their profile picture, and didn’t need to know any more. Ha, and to be honest, I had no idea this Facebook page that said “Sweet Potatoes” belonged to them until I noticed a recipe contest pop up in my feed. Sweet potatoes + recipe contest? I’m in!



The contest celebrates the versatility of sweet potatoes by looking past the typical way sweet potatoes are eaten (hence the name, No More Mallows, ha). Anyways … I immediately thought of my absolute favorite sweet potato recipe that I’ve talked about more than once on The Purple Carrot, so I just had to revisit it.

The natural sweetness of the sweet potatoes with the unlikely spicy pairing of chili powder, cumin, and jalapeños give these enchiladas an amazing flavor! It’s a regular in our house, and it’s always, always a hit!



All you need to make these babies are sweet potatoes (obviously!), tortillas, a can of black beans, some salsa, an onion, jalapenos, a few spices, and some cheddar cheese.



It’s really simple too! You start out by peeling and cubing your sweet potatoes, and placing them in the oven to roast for about 30 minutes. (Alternatively, you can microwave the cubed sweet potatoes if you’re in a jam).

While the sweet potatoes are roasting, sauté your chopped onion and jalapeños until softened, add your chili powder, cumin, and black beans, then mix it all together!

 

Put the mixture evenly into some tortillas, add salsa and cheese, and throw them in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes!

 

Spicy sweet potato & black bean enchiladas 

*makes about 6 enchiladas

Ingredients:

• 3 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 can black beans, drained
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2-3 jalapenos, chopped (add more if you like it really hot!)
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 jar salsa of choice
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• Pepper, to taste
• Olive oil
• Cheddar cheese of choice (I kept it vegan and used cheddar Daiya cheese)
• Warm tortillas + any other desired toppings

Directions:

• Preheat oven at about 375F.
• Peel and chop sweet potatoes, tossing them in a little olive oil (optional). Place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and place them in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until tender.
• In the meantime, chop your onion and jalapenos.
• In a heated sauté pan, add about a tablespoon olive oil and once warn, add onions and jalapenos. When they become tender, add drained can of black beans, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper and stir together.
• Place into a bowl and set aside. Once the sweet potatoes are tender, add them to the black bean mixture. Stir until combined.
• Place about a 1/3 of the salsa in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish, or until it’s covered with a small layer of liquid.
• Spoon mixture evenly into about 6 tortillas, wrapping them up and placing them into your dish, tightly next to one another. Spread out remaining salsa (or however much you’d like) onto the top of the rolled tortillas. Next, layer cheese on top of the salsa.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes.

We love to top our with vegan cashew sour cream. And yum! Thank goodness for sweet potatoes



Happy eating,

Baked sweet potato fries

I think if asked to pick one food as my favorite, sweet potatoes would have serious potential for winning.

Since I was little, I’ve absolutely loved them. I used to go to my grandma’s house when I was little, have her cook me the biggest sweet potato she had, and I would douse it in tons of butter and salt.

Don’t worry, I have since reformed my ways and eat them in a bit healthier way. One such way is in form of fries. Who doesn’t love a good sweet potato fry?

Exactly.

I like to chop my sweet potatoes in pretty large chunks. Once chopped, I toss them in a bowl with olive oil and sea salt. They should be lightly rubbed with the mixture, not saturated.

Place them on a baking pan (I lined mine with parchment paper for easier clean up). Make sure they're not overlapped or they will not evenly cook. Here’s the part you have to pay attention to, lest you burn your sweet potato fries to a complete crisp.

Bake at 450 for 15 minutes. Turn fries over, and bake again for 10 minutes. Repeat this step two or three more times depending on how brown you want them. I like to get mine as close to burnt as possible without actually burning them into the above mentioned “complete crisp”.

We had our sweet potato fries with brown rice and lentils topped with sautéed kale and onions, served with a large portion of guacamole. If you put a bite of everything in your mouth all at once, the combination is delicious!

What’s your favorite way to eat a sweet potato?

Also, any tricks to getting baked sweet potato fries perfectly crispy?

Warm sweet potato quinoa

Happy middle of the week!

The weather has officially been feeling very much like fall, and I’m still loving cuddling up next to a hot tea. The past few days in Kansas City the sky has been cloudy and the breeze has been chilly. Thus, it called for warm, delicious comfort food! I had to work late this evening, so Erik made it happen. And in such an easy, simple, and delicious way.

Warm Sweet Potato Quinoa

Ingredients:

• 2 cups quinoa, cooked according to directions
• 1 large sweet potato, cubed
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 vegetable bouillon cubes (no salt added)
• Water (about 8 cups)
• Sea salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste

Instructions:

• Cook quinoa according to directions, set aside.
• Place all other ingredients in large pan, and cook on medium high until almost boiling. Turn heart down to low and let simmer until veggies are tender (about 20 minutes total)
• Place some quinoa in a bowl, and top with as much veggie mixture as desired, and enjoy!

Note: I added a dollop of cashew cheese to mine, but it’s delicious as is!

I’ve missed you, sweet potatoes! Perfect fall evening dinner, and so quick and easy. Have I mentioned lately that Erik is the best? Yes, he is!

What’s your favorite way to eat sweet potatoes?

Jackfruit

Check out our little deck birdies now!

I went outside last night to water some plants and I was shocked to see the birds up and about, so big! It’s like they grew 3 inches over night.

Mom is as protective as ever (if not more), and I imagine these little guys flying away any day now. I don’t know how long it usually takes for them to fly, but I guess time will tell!

Until then, we will stay afraid to go onto our deck lest mom spread her protective wrath upon us!

Spicy Sweet Potato & Black Bean Pitas

We bought some Ezekiel brand pitas the other day and we have been putting them to excellent use. I love how they help make such a quick and easy meal.

This meal was a vegan version of one of our longtime favorites, Spicy Yam & Ground Turkey tacos.

Basically, I followed the recipe but used black beans instead of turkey, and added more sweet potatoes. Note: next time I will add more jalapeños. The extra sweet potatoes really drowned out the kick.

Stuff that pita with the sweet potato mixture, some vegan cheese, fresh tomatoes and guacamole and you’re good to go! Served along sautéed broccoli, zucchini squash and mushrooms:

Jackfruit

I mentioned earlier this week how we hunted down a jackfruit after eating vegan jackfruit based meals at FUD. We had never heard of jackfruit until eating at FUD, so I’m assuming I’m not the only one.

What is jackfruit?
-- Jackfruit is a species of tree that is part of the mulberry family
-- Native to parts of Southern and Southeast Asia
-- It can be a great meat substitute; the flesh of the jackfruit is starchy, fibrous and is a source of dietary fiber.
-- They’re huge, see?

My plan was to do a recipe similar to this. As you can tell, it very closely resembles meat, and looks delicious!

Buuuut …. our jackfruit is very sticky. One thing we didn’t realize is that most “meat” jackfruit recipes use very unripe jackfruit, because the more ripe it is, the stickier it becomes and doesn’t work with a savory dish. (And I mean STICKY). By the looks of it, it seems most people use canned jackfruit as well.

So we don’t really know what we’re doing, but we think this is too sticky to use like planned and I read from many sources that it will NOT work as a "meat" is too ripe. So, for now we have not concurred the jackfruit, ha. You live, you learn!

But mark my words, our adventures with jackfruit are not over yet!

Have you ever used jackfruit? Fill me in on any jackfruit secrets!