Sweet Potato and Peanut Butter Soup

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It's that time of year again; the soup time of year. During the summer, I eat a lot of salads. But during the winter (a bit of defining here -- to me, in the cooking sense anyway, Summer equals warmer weather and Winter equals colder weather), I try to make a soup of some sort. Both soups and salads offer one the opportunity to eat a filling, vegetable based dish before eating a more calorie dense course.

This soup is easy, particularly if you have an immersion blender (which I do). I take a large sweet potato and cut it into smaller pieces. I then put the sweet potato into a pot with 4 cups (1 quart) of water and my spices -- I like the curry spices -- so I use 1 teaspoon each turmeric, paprika (sweet), coriander, and 1/2 teaspoon of cumin, chili powder and 1/8-1/4 teaspoon cloves (optional). Any other spices you like are nice too. I boil the sweet potato, covered (cover it after the water starts boiling), until the sweet potato is very soft. At this point, if you want, you can peel off the skin, but I prefer to leave the skin on.

While the water is still warm, mash the sweet potato a bit and add 1/2 cup all natural peanut butter of your choice (I like chunky). Stir the peanut butter in to soften it. At this point, if you like, add your choice of sauteed vegetables (mushrooms of all sorts, garlic and onion family veggies, zucchini, greens, etc.).

Get your immersion blender and blend the ingredients very well. If you don't have an immersion blender, use a blender or food processor to puree the ingredients.

This soup stays well (but not long, since it's so delicious, you can't help running to warm some up) in the refrigerator.