Sweet potato soup

A friend of mine at work has a throat infection and she is pretty miserable at the moment. She was talking about how she would like her mother to make her some pumpkin soup. I found this recipe for sweet potato soup in the bonus cookbook in the latest Healthy Food Guide and I thought I'd make some for her while she waited for her mother's pumpkin soup.

I've never made a creamy soup like pumpkin or sweet potato soup before, but this was really easy. Tasty too. My problem was that I halved the recipe and then boiled the sweet potato for the time in the recipe and too much of my liquid evaporated, turning my soup from a soup to a nice smooshy mash/puree type thing. It is an absolutely gorgeous smooshy mash/puree type thing though, but I'm not quite willing to let people who know me see it. I'm pretty sure that the people who read this blog have experienced something similar and can sympathise!

I'm not sure if I can save it by returning it to heat and trying to thin it out with more chicken stock. I'm debating over trying it with a little bit. If I decide to leave it as a mash, it's still okay. I have everything I need for a second batch.

The photo was fun too. Because I wasn't going to eat any I didn't want to fill a proper bowl, so I went for a mini setup. I used a small custard cup/ramekin for a bowl and I sliced thin little bread medallions from a pane di casa roll from Baker's Delight. It was very cute.

Sweet Potato Soup
adapted from Healthy Food Guide Classic Makeovers Recipe Book (June 2008)

olive or canola oil spray
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp minced chilli
1 tsp ground coriander
500g orange sweet potato, peeled and cut into small cubes
500ml chicken stock
75ml evaporated milk

Heat a large saucepan and spray with oil. Cook onion over medium heat for 3-4 minutes or until soft. Add garlic, chilli and ground coriander and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

Add sweet potato, chicken stock and water. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes or until sweet potato is tender. Cool slightly, and puree.

Add evaporated milk and reheat gently.

Update: I saved my soup today by adding some more stock and evaporated milk over a medium heat until it got to the soupy consistency I was after. It's still really yummy!