sweet potato-greens-sage soup, adapted with love
‘CAN I HAVE YOUR RECIPE?’ friends ask each other, back and forth after delicious meals served with love and hopefully a side order of tasty conversation. But so often it’s not “my” recipe, or “yours” that’s on the table, but one that we have found in a cookbook that became identified with us by those we served it to—friends and family who ask us to make “our” dish again. The actual provenance, though, remains the same: “My” sweet potato-greens soup with sage and garlic is actually Anna Thomas’s Green Soup With Sweet Potatoes and Sage, from her James Beard Award-winning cookbook, “Love Soup.”
You’ll notice that I said sweet potato-greens soup in the headline, though Anna Thomas’s original has it the other way round, with the greens first. I suspect her soup is greener in color than mine comes out, too. That why I say mine is an adaptation (that, and the fact that once I read a recipe and follow it the first time, I rarely look again, and just keep on adapting).
my version of sweet potato-greens soup with sage
ingredients
- 1¼-2 lbs sweet potatoes (Anna recommends 1¼; I use about 2 to shift the flavor and color balance)
- 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2-3 tbsp sage leaves chopped
- 1 bunch kale
- 1 bunch chard
- 8 cloves garlic
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 3 cups water
- 2 large yellow onions
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- black pepper
- really good olive oil (for garnish)
directions
- Peel and cube the sweets, and put them with the chopped sage and the salt in a big pot, adding 3 cups or so of water over them, and simmering, covered, till soft.
- Meantime saute the diced onions till soft and golden brown, in the olive oil.
- Chop the washed greens coarsely while all that’s happening.
- Add the greens and the whole garlic cloves and the broth to the sweet potato mixture, and let that all soften by simmering awhile longer, covered.
- Add the cooked onions. (I deglaze the onion pan with a bit of the broth to get all the good flavor from the oil and onion bits, wasting nothing.)
- Let the mixture cool enough to blend thoroughly. Using an immersion blender right in the pot, I puree the soup, and adjust the liquid if needed.
- And then, as Anna Thomas says, drizzle with a fruity olive oil before serving. “This last step is essential,” she reminds us. Agreed. Drizzle away, and enjoy.
notes
more
how to win a copy of ‘love soup’
I’M CRAZY ABOUT BOOKS, and especially cookbooks (and field guides, and novels, and garden books, and … oh dear). Anna Thomas’s “Love Soup” is as good as it gets–about one of my favorite dishes, soup, and vegetarian and good-for-you fresh to boot. The million-selling author of “The Vegetarian Epicure” wrote another winner. Just answer this question in the comments below to enter [note: the giveway is complete, but your comments are always welcome]:
What’s the most popular soup in your house, and where did the original recipe come from?Feeling shy (or no soup in the house)? Just say, “Count me in,” and I will.
Two winners will be were chosen at random after entries close at midnight Sunday, October 21, 2014. Good luck to all.
(Disclaimer: Any small commissions I earn from purchases made from Amazon links in this post go to purchasing the books I buy to give away.)
Just made, using spinach, very good.
Always looking for a non-poultry recipe using sage, so thanks!
Favourite soup around here? Barley, lentil, and leek — at the moment.
My first thought when reading this title was cooking the leaves from sweet potato vines, which made me wonder about including the leaves into recipes.
Have you tried this? Is the flavor enjoyable?
I so enjoy your recipes as they allow room for creativity and imagination with amounts and ingredients. I feel like we are in the kitchen together. I love soups in general, lentil being my most adored. I am beyond vegetarian as a Vegan, so lentils are the stars of protein for me!!!!!!!
My favorite soup in the house (I live alone) is what we call kitchen scraps soup. It varies according to leftovers to be found but usually has beans, onions, garlic, cabbage & or other greens, potatoes, carrots, maybe celery, maybe tomatoes, & various herbs. At this time of year a lot of the “leftovers” come from the garden. You never know how it will turn out but it is always good.
Vegetable Soup. The recipe is from my Grandmother.
Lentil soup. Can’t remember where the recipe came from.
Borsch with dumplings, my mother’s recipe
Has anyone made this sweet potato – greens soup with Winter Squash instead of sweet potatoes? I have lots of squash.
(BTW – fave soup at our house: Lentil Barley Stew from The More With Less Cookbook.)
Split pea soup was my moms favorite recipe for years
Favorite soup – Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup, made with saurerkrat and cabbage, lots of onions and beef stew. I learned it from a woman who did bookkeeping in our business about 40 years ago and have made it ever since. Business is long gone. Divorce husband 20 years ago, but the soup lives on. There are no precise measurements used, only need to know the exact sweet sour taste you are looking for.
Fav soup here in frosty MN — Anna Thomas’ lentil soup!
thank you for the soup.. perfect for my weather and kitchen! Whenever I use things that are hard to peel and cut – with my 78 year old hands.. like sweet potatoes, butternut squash..even rutabagas.. I put them in the oven for “awhile” to at least sofen the peeling and usually to roast all the way through.. they make soup easily from the soft scoop out stage with a lot less work.. In the “rhythm of the day” I often will have something like that in the oven earlier in the day or the day before to have easy prep for soups or even to cut up and oil and season and roast..
Our favorite soup is Monarch Orange Soup: red lentils cooked with sweet potato hunks, carrot moons, sauteed onion and at end stir in chopped spinach, squeeze of lime!
My current favorite is a chicken soup by Ottolenghi.
Well, even though the offer to win the book was made in Oct. of 2014, I will send a comment anyway. My first favorite soup is shrimp thai red curry, of which I have made many different variations. I got it off the jar of red curry from Thai Kitchen, or maybe off their fish sauce jar. It is rich and flavorful and makes veggies taste wonderful.
My second favorite is the cauliflower soup found on an Udo’s Oil jar. It is hearty and delicious. and easy to make.
Italian wedding soup
I love soup and I love sweet potatoes, so this sounds like a winner! Thanks for sharing.
Chicken corn chowder, a Pennsylvania Dutch recipe
Our household and now my extended family loves Albondigas soup. A delicious Mexican meatball soup. We used to live in Southern California. The city we lived in and near is predominantly Latino. The recipe showed up on my door step in a free issue of a magazine for Latin women. It was written Spanish and English. I took a couple of years of Spanish in highschool and college. I challenged myself to use the Spanish side to make the recipe. It was fun. Now it is a family favorite for my family, all of my three sisters” families, and my husband’s family too.