Thai Sweet Potato Soup
Thai food is my absolute favourite! Since visiting Thailand, I’ve been even more obsessed with coconut curries and fragrant spices. Only problem for me is the massive spice issue… Thais love spice, a lot of spice. However, it doesn’t take many chillies to blow mine and Dillon’s tongue off! Therefore making your own food is the best, since you can tailor it to your heat threshold.
Creamy soups are 100% the best kind in my opinion and with the blended sweet potato & thick coconut milk does the trick. This soup is super simple, perfect for a easy supper for the family. The beautiful flavours come from a paste of ground galangal, ginger, garlic, lemongrass, chilli and kefir lime leaves. These ingredients are easy to get hold of in supermarkets now, but I always use Asian supermarkets as they are so interesting to look round! These follow the same spices as our much adored Thai Vegan Crab Cakes.
Totally recommend you try out this creamy bad boy. Tell us what you think!
- 750g (26oz) Sweet Potatoes
- 1 fresh red chilli
- 1½ sticks of lemongrass
- 4 kefir lime leaves
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp. ginger, grated
- 1 tbsp. galangal, grated
- I tbsp. vegan bouillon or vegetable stock cube
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce or tamari
- 1 can coconut milk
- Juice and zest of one lime
- Pour 2 cups of boiling water into a bowl along with your bouillon/veg cube. Set aside
- Peel your potatoes and cut into cubes. Set aside.
- Roughly slice 1½ lemongrass sticks, 2 kefir lime leaves & red chilli (deseeded if desired) and place in a pestle and mortar along with your garlic, ginger and galangal. Mash into a paste, it doesn't matter if there are still a few small lumps.
- Heat 2 tbsp. of oil of choice in a large heavyweight cooking pot/pan on med/high and toss in your paste and 2 whole lime leaves. Let fry for 2 minutes, stirring often.
- Add your sweet potatoes, mix with the paste and let fry for about 5 minutes.
- Pour in your vegetable stock and soy sauce. Let it come to a boil, then turn to a simmer. Place the lid on and leave for about 20 minutes or until your sweet potato is tender. Remove your lime leaves.
- Add in coconut, lime zest and juice and blend with a hand blender until smooth (use a blender and return to the pot if you don't have a hand blender)
- Heat to desired temp and season with salt and pepper to taste.
This recipe looks amazing, I can’t wait to make it tomorrow! I wanted to ask about the quantities of lemongrass and keffir lime leaves though as the amounts to use differ in the ingredients list and the method. Thanks!
Hi Jen. Thanks for flagging this, I’ll make an alteration. However, you should use 2 large kefir lime leaves in the paste and what I like to do is throw in the other two lime leaves in when you are frying off your paste, and keep them in the soup whole to boil, then remove them before blending the soup. Also, the lemongrass should be 1 1/2 sticks – so about 7-8 inches worth. Hope that helps! Enjoy your soup! I really do love this recipe 🙂