Curried Sweet Potato Soup

This was a nice soup! My kids didn't totally love it, but I thought it was great! I got it from the Oct. '06 issue of Cuisine At Home. I love this magazine. Most of the recipes I try are above average. I have had a few that were so-so, but none that were downright bad. I also like that there is no advertising in the whole magazine! I have from time to time subscribed to Bon Apetit, which I like, but I hate the pages and pages of ads. When I was getting it, the first thing I would do is go through each page and tear out the ones that were only ads!

I was in a hurry when I made this, so I made it in a pressure cooker. I just threw everything in and cooked at high pressure for about 3 or 5 minutes (I can't remember now). The only problems I had were that the lentils were not quite done, and there was too much liquid. When using the pressure cooker, none of the liquid gets to escape during cooking and sometimes you have to cut down the liquid a bit in the recipe. Oh yeah, one more change to the recipe: I substituted orange juice for the wine.

I found that my cilantro pesto was a perfect complement to this soup. I stirred some in with the sour cream right before I ate it.




Curried Sweet Potato Soup
with lentils, tomatoes, and yogurt

There's a lot of flavor in a bowl of this quick soup! Be sure the curry powder you use is fairly fresh or the soup's intensity will suffer.
Makes about 4 1/2 cups; Total time: about 40 minutes

1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/4 cup carrot, diced
1/4 cup celery, diced
1 T. fresh ginger, minced
1 bay leaf
Pinch of red pepper flakes
2 T. vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups sweet potato, peeled, cubed
1 t. curry powder
1/4 cup dry white wine
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained
1/4 cup brown lentils
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt to taste
Plain yogurt or sour cream

Saute onion, carrot, clelery, ginger, bay leaf, and pepper flakes in oil in a pot over medium-high heat until soft, 8-10 minutes. Add sweet potatoes and curry powder; saute 1 minute.
Deglaze with wine; simmer until almost evaporated, then stir in broth, tomatoes, and lentils. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, until lentils and sweet potatoes are tender, 25-30 minutes.
Off heat, stir in 2 T. cilantro, lemon juice, and salt. Garnish each serving of soup with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream and some of the remaining cilantro.