Winter Recipe: Sweet Potato, Ginger and Lemongrass Soup

My favourite thing about winter is it’s the season of soups. And this warming soup will having you racing for seconds.

This soup is thick and creamy, and real easy to make using very minimal ingredients; some of which you probably already have laying in wait in your pantry.

Apart from the whole COVID-19 crisis, we are well and truly deep into our flu season here in Australia. Which means, it’s time to start adding in some immune boosting herbs and spices into your recipes, to help you combat any bacteria in the body, fight of viruses and keep the body clean and healthy. These can be anything from ginger, garlic, to chilli and cinnamon.

I love experimenting with a variety of spices in my cooking most of the year, and often add in extra ginger and cinnamon into my banana bread recipes and even add a dash of chilli into my blueberry pancakes. Don’t knock it till you try it..

Many herbs and spices, especially ginger and garlic also create a comforting and warming effect in the body, which can assist in helping you stay warm inn the colder months of the year. This also prevents the body from catching a chill and allowing bacteria to form and then ultimately ending in you catching a cold from your weakened immune system.

For this recipe, I don’t have a specific guide on the amount of herbs and spices you need to add in, as this really depends on how you hot and gingery you like your recipes. Some of you may not add chilli at all, it’s entirely up to you actually.

Though, I do recommend you add in at least a few flakes of dried chilli, as it will help kill any bacteria and virus in the body. Plus it tastes so good mashed with ginger, lemongrass and sweet potato – yum.

Oh! And did I also mention this soup is completely vegan and gluten-free too. Winning.

Here’s what you’ll need for this recipe:

4 medium sweet potatoes
400g tinned coconut milk (you can use normal cream if you’re not a vegan and happy too use normal cream).
4 cups of vegetable stock (chicken for any non-vegan peeps out there).
2 tablespoons of grated ginger (you can also use crushed ginger in the jar too).
1 stalk of lemongrass
Salt and pepper (Himalayan is best, but entirely up to you what you want to use).
Parsley for garnishing

As I mentioned, this soup is real easy to make and you’ll nail it in one go, making it easy to remake time and time again.

Here’s how you make the soup:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Leaving the skin on, cut the sweet potato into half lengthways and place on a baking tray, skin side down. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle some oil, before popping into the oven and baking for at least 40 minutes – or until tender.
Into a pot on the stove, pop the coconut milk, stock, ginger, and lemongrass and bring to the boil and then turn down to a simmer.
When the sweet potato is ready, remove from the oven and allow too cool.
Once cooled, use a spoon too scoop out the sweet potato out of the skin and add into the pot of coconut milk mixture. You can also leave the skin on and pop in to if you like. Up to you.
If you want to remove the lemongrass you can do that now also, or otherwise leave in. Depends on the type of texture and flavour you are going for.
NOTE: If you do decide to leave the sweet potato skin and lemongrass in, your soup will be more fibrous than smooth and creamy. However it will tastes just as good.
Using a stick blender, blend the soup until it’s smooth and creamy, or until you get your desired texture for the soup – something you’re happy with.
You can either leave the strobe on low whilst you do this, or turn it off if the soup is hot enough.
Once done, you’re ready to serve up the soup. Top with chopped parsley, a little extra salt and pepper, oh and don’t forget a glass of red and some delicious toasted bread too.

Enjoy X