Archive for October, 2007

In the Fall we like to use as many fresh vegetables as possible. We do this in other seasons, too, but there’s just something about hearty fall veggies that my wife and I really love. So tonight, as I waited for Leopard to install, I used one such veggie–several fresh local sweet potatoes–to make a tasty soup.

Fall Veggie Soup

• 2 large sweet potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 large onion, rough cut into one inch pieces
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 32 ounces of chicken stock
• 3 par boiled chicken breasts (smallish ones)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 teaspoon canola oil
• A palmful of each of the following: cumin, paprika
• Sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Prep

Heat butter and canola oil in a dutch oven or deep stock pot. Add garlic and sauté for a minute or so. Add onion and sauté a little longer, until onion is mostly translucent. Add sweet potatoes to mixture, stirring often. Add cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper and continue to stir just until pan begins to dry out slightly. Add chicken stock and scrape pan bottom. Cover and simmer while shredding chicken, for about 20 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender. Add chicken and cook an additional five minutes to give flavor to chicken. Serve in large bowls, optionally topping with any nutty cheese.The best part of this recipe is the broth, which has this complex flavor of onion and garlic with the sweetness from the paprika. Great stuff on a rainy fall night.