Thai coconut sweet potato soup

This week I'm going to try Thai coconut sweet potato soup! I'll let
you know how it goes...

Ingredients

5 spray(s) Cooking Spray, Calorie Controlled
2 medium Onion, All Types, finely chopped
2 clove(s) Garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons (level) Cumin seeds, ground
1 individual Chilli, Green or Red, or red, deseeded, finely chopped
950 g Sweet Potato, peeled, roughly chopped
1 cube(s) Stock Cube, Vegetable, dissolved in 1.25 litre boiling water
120 ml Blue Dragon Coconut Milk, Reduced Fat
1 pinch Salt, and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoons Coriander, Fresh, chopped

Instructions
Spray a medium saucepan with cooking spray. Place over medium heat.
Add onion and cook, stirring for 2 minutes or until softened. Stir in
garlic, cumin and chilli. Cook for a further 2 minutes. Add sweet
potato and cook for 2 minutes.

Add stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer covered
for 30 minutes, or until sweet potato is tender. Cool slightly.

Blend or process mixture in batches until smooth. Return to heat and
stir in coconut milk. Stir until heated through. Season to taste with
salt and pepper. Serve garnished with coriander.

Soup photo

I made the red lentil soup the other night and tossed some arucola on top. It was insane. You guys really have to try making it.

PS. I doubled the red pepper. It had some kick!

Potato Leek Soup

Last week we got a ginourmous leek in our CSA box, so I decided to try
out a soup recipe that a colleague had shared with me. It was
excellent and super easy. Here is the recipe I loosely followed.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter (I used 1/2 cup)
2 leeks, sliced (I used 1)
salt and pepper to taste
1 quart chicken broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch (I skipped this)
4 cups Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and
diced
2 cups heavy cream (I used 2% milk)

Directions:
1. In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter. Cook leeks in butter
with salt and pepper until tender, stirring frequently, about 15
minutes.
2. Stir cornstarch into broth and pour broth into pot. Add the
potatoes and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in the
cream, reduce heat and simmer at least 30 minutes, until potatoes are
tender. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

This weeks soup

For some reason, I've really gotten into making soups lately. Last
week I did a fun potato leek soup that was amazing (I'll post that
too). Here's the one I'm going to try this week...

Red Lentil Soup Recipe

Be sure to pick through your lentils carefully. I somehow always find
pebbles or clots of dirt hiding in their midst. Better to catch them
on the front end, before you chip a tooth. And to make this soup
vegan, just skip the feta at the end i bet some chopped avocado would
be a good alternative.

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 shallots, chopped
1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes

6 cups good-tasting vegetable stock (or water)
1 1/3 cup red lentils, picked over and rinsed
1/2 cup brown rice, picked over and rinsed
as much fine grain sea salt as you need

slivered almonds, toasted
black oil cured olives, chopped
feta, crumbled

In a big soup pot, over medium heat, combine the olive oil, onion,
shallots, and red pepper flakes. Let them brown, and caramelize a bit,
stirring occasionally.

Stir in the broth, bring to a boil, then stir in the lentils and rice.
Simmer for about 30 minutes or until the rice is very tender, and not
at all toothsome. By this time, the lentils will have collapsed into a
thick slop of sorts. If you need to add more water/broth at any point
do so a splash at a time, until the soup thins out to the point you
prefer.

Unless you used a salty broth, you will likely need to salt
generously, until the the soup no longer tastes flat. Serve each bowl
topped with almonds, olives, feta, and a slight drizzle of olive oil
if you like.

Serves 4 - 6.