"Sweet Potato Chile Soup" read the title for a recent recipe in our local newspaper. I was intrigued by the dish because of an unusual combination of ingredients. Sweet potatoes are being touted as a healthy addition to our diets, "packing a powerful nutritional punch, " reports Medical News Today. One medium potato provides 400% of daily needs for Vitamin A as well as fiber and potassium. And the chiles...well, chiles perk up almost any dish.
Our Desert Southwest is blessed with an abundant year round supply of chiles. I love chiles for three reasons: they are low in calories, high in vitamins, and, more importantly perhaps, really tasty. When my husband Wayne and I travel very far from El Paso, our home town, we often end up complaining about the local food, wishing that we could cure the blandness with a small dose of chile.
The two chiles found in this soup recipe, the poblano and chipotle, are not as common as the jalapeño or long green chile, but they still can be easily found in local markets. The poblano has a heat rating of 1,000-1500 Scoville units, which is less than the jalapeño. The poblano is usually dark green in color but may be red as well.
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| Chile poblano |
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| Chipotle pepper |
The chipotle is the dried or smoked form of a fresh jalapeño, with a Scoville unit of 2500-5000. This sweet potato soup recipe calls for canned chipotle in adobo sauce (made with tomatoes, garlic, and various spices).
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| Chipotle pepper in adobo sauce |
The hardest part of the soup recipe was peeling the poblano peppers. I arranged three peppers on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven on broil, turning the peppers over when they started to blacken. Then I wrapped the chiles in a damp cloth, and after a few minutes, went to work to remove the thin skin. I am used to peeling long green chiles that give up their skin fairly easily, but the poblanos were more of a challenge. (Be sure to wear rubber gloves during the chile peeling process).
The rest of the recipe was a breeze. I sauteed a chopped third of an onion and one chopped garlic clove in a small amount of butter. Then I added two sweet potatoes, peeled and quartered, a 32 ounce container of chicken stock, two chipotle peppers in adobo, and the three roasted and peeled poblanos. When the mixture came to a boil, I cooked it on medium low heat until the potatoes were tender.
The last step was to puree the mixture in a blender with 1/2 cup milk (or cream would have been even better) and 1/3 cup honey. A garnish of cilantro (fresh coriander) finished off the exotic flavors. I was so proud of the soup that I served it in a special tureen bought in Mexico years ago.
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| Sweet Potato Chile Soup |
Sweet Potato Chile Soup makes four generous servings. I hope this soup will warm you on a cold winter's day, as it did us.
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