Creamy Sweet Potato Soup
If sweet potatoes have only ever shown up at your table under a pile of marshmallows, this Creamy Sweet Potato Soup is about to change what you think they’re for. One pot. No fussing. This is the dinner for the night it gets dark at four thirty and you want something warm without a whole production.
Sweet potatoes, an onion, two cloves of garlic, and a teaspoon of cumin go in the pot, and fifty minutes later you have a bowl of something rich and velvety that tastes like it took all afternoon. NINE ingredients, and most of them are already in your kitchen.
Here’s the thing about creamy soups that nobody tells you, you often need a fancy blender to get there. But not this sweet potato soup! Sweet potatoes cook up soft enough that you can mash them with a potato masher right in the pot.
But if you have an immersion blender use it! It will give you lump free smooth texture but you really don’t NEED one for this soup recipe. The rustic look and feel of the rough mashed sweet potatoes is perfect for soup and bread night!
What You Need For This Sweet Potato Soup
Here’s your list. Nothing unusual on it, and if you keep an onion and a stick of butter around, you’re most of the way there already.
- olive oil
- unsalted butter
- white onion
- garlic
- cumin
- salt
- pepper
- sweet potatoes
- chicken stock
- heavy cream or try evaporated milk if you don’t have heavy cream! (You can find all the best ingredient swaps in my ebook btw!)
The cumin is what keeps this soup from being a dessert. Sweet potatoes are, well, sweet, and a soup made of nothing but sweet potato and cream gets too sweet and creamy fast. Cumin puts a little earthy umami note into the soup. Don’t skip it!
The heavy cream goes in at the very end, off the boil, so it doesn’t curdle. It takes the whole pot from good to the kind of soup you want to eat out of a mug cuddled up on the couch. With a grilled cheese or a chunk of bread.
Change It Up
If you want a vegetarian soup, swap use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.
No heavy cream? Evaporated milk or half and half works just fine! But so will whole milk or coconut milk. The coconut milk works beautifully because of the cumin but it leans more towards a curry flavor once you add it. No one complains though! At least not in my house.
You can also add a little ham or bacon to the soup if you like. I’d brown it before hand, remove it once browned and then build the soup on top of the oil left behind after browning. Add the ham or bacon back after the soup is down and you’ve aded the cream. It gives it a little smoky note that works perfectly in the soup.
What Can Go Wrong
The biggest issue with this soup can and will be curdling the cream. It’s always added to the soup once it’s finished cooking and it’s just on low on the stove. If you boil the cream you run the very real risk of getting curdled cream. And that goes just about all the milk substitutes I mentioned except the coconut milk. I’ve never experienced it curdling in a soup.
Got Leftovers?
Store the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 to 3 days. This soup thickens up a LOT once it’s cooled down. So add a splash of broth or water to loosen it up. Reheat it gently in a pot on the stove over low heat, do not boil it the dairy in it will curdle.
Creamy Sweet Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 large white onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 lb sweet potatoes peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
- 5 cups chicken stock
- 2/3 cup heavy cream divided, half for the soup and half for garnish
Optional Garnishes
- crispy fried onions
- fresh chopped herbs
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil and butter in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat.
- Add the diced onions and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly golden
- Stir in the garlic, cumin, salt, and pepper. Cook for 1 minute until fragrant
- Add the cubed sweet potatoes and chicken stock, stir everything together and bring to a boil
- Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20-25 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are fork tender
- With the heat off use a potato masher and mash the potatoes in the pot or if you have one use an immersion blender to blend it smooth in the post
- Stir in half of the heavy cream if the soup is warm enough you can serve it at this point if the cream cooled it off significantly you can gently warm it for 2-3 minutes over low heat
- Taste and adjust the salt and pepper if needed
- Ladle into bowls and garnish with the remaining heavy cream
- sprinkle with optional garnishes if desired
