Its no secret, I am a fan of soup. And, the funny thing is, my kids love it too. Even my little man (who isnt the biggest fan of vegetables), loves any soup I put in front of him, as long as it is smooth! There really isn’t too much to a good soup – and that’s the beauty of it. You don’t need to be a rock-star in the kitchen to get it right. And, it is power packed with nutrients.
6 Tips to a good soup:
1) Make sure you have a root vegetable – preferably a sweet-ish one. Sweet potatoes, Butternut, Pumkin and Carrots all work wonders in a soup.
2) The Broth needs to be tasty – you can make your own or use good old stock cubes (check the ingredients!)
3) Make sure you know how long each vegetable takes to cook – as a rule of thumb, 30 min usually does the trick
4) Use vegetables which are in season.
5) To add some creaminess – use coconut milk or coconut cream
6) Add some protein by adding a tin of black beans, red kidney beans or chickpeas towards the end of the cooking time.
Sweet potato and sesame soup with toasted coconut and crispy Fry’s Family Polony
Serves 8 (or 4 if you have 3 very hungry boys in your family)
Cooking time 1 hour
VEGAN
Sweet Potato & Sesame Soup with Roasted Coconut.
Ingredients
¼ Fry’s Polony/Slicing Sausage, cubed
1 red onions, chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
20ml fresh ginger, finely chopped
30ml olive oil
20ml margarine
45ml dry sherry
2 tsp rapadura/coconut sugar
500ml/2cups water
3 sweet potatoes, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
15ml tomato paste
1 tsp Himalayan Salt
10ml sesame seeds, toasted (set aside some for serving)
1 tsp chilli flakes
400ml/1 tin coconut milk
Handful fresh coriander, chopped
15ml cumin seeds, toasted
½ lemon, squeezed
Fresh/shaved coconut, toasted for serving
Method
Sweat the onions, garlic and ginger in the olive oil and butter for about 5 minutes. Add the sherry and sugar and continue cooking until the mixture is thick and sticky, about 5 minutes. Add the water, sweet potatoes, carrots, tomato paste, sesame seeds, chilli flakes, coconut milk & salt.
Simmer until all the vegetables are soft, about 30-40 min. Add more water only if necessary. Purée with a hand blender. Fry the cubed Polony in a little bit of oil until crispy and set aside.
Add the coriander, cumin seeds and lemon juice. Serve hot with sesame seeds, coconut & Polony.
Serve with Sourdough or Rye Bread.