Sweet Potato Peanut Soup

You will also need:

1. A large, heavy-bottomed pot with a lid.
2. A food processor or blender.

For the soup:

1. Heat the oil in the pot over medium heat. Add the onion, red and green peppers and ginger and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring them until the onion and peppers are tender. Add the garlic and continue to cook, stirring, until the onion just begins to turn golden.
2. Add the salt, black pepper and cayenne. Stir everything around together.
3. Add the tomatoes and their juice, the sweet potato puree, water and the bouillon cube. Lower the heat and simmer the soup ingredients gently, covered, for about 25 minutes.
4. Add the peanut butter. Stir it in until it is completely combined with the rest of the soup ingredients.
5. Puree the mixture, a cup or two at a time, in a food processor or blender. The end result need not be perfectly smooth. If you prefer a textured soup, either don’t puree all of it or puree all of it to a lesser degree. Return each pureed portion of soup to the pot.
6. Add the cream and continue to heat until heated through. (The soup may be made 1 or 2 days in advance up to this point and reheated.) Add a little more cream or vegetable bouillon to thin the soup if you like.
7. Divide the soup among bowls and sprinkle each serving with the chopped green onions.

An optional additional garnish:

Slice the green parts of some green onions lengthwise into thin, straight spears. Arrange 2 spears in a V-shape, resting on the rim of each bowl as shown in the photo.

An Acknowledgement: This recipe is adapted from one in Deborah Madison’s cookbook This Can’t Be Tofu (2000). Obviously mine doesn’t include tofu. Deborah Madison’s cooking is full of interesting and good combinations of ingredients and reflects her interests in seasonal and local eating, farmers markets and small farming.