Caramelised sweet potato & spicy chorizo soup
Earthy, wholesome and just a little bit spicy, this is a great autumn recipe that is easy to prepare for a midweek dinner.
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg orange sweet potatoes
- 1 large brown onion, diced
- 1.5 l good quality chicken stock
- 2 rounds spicy chorizo sausage, or 4 individual sausages
- 1/4 cup chilled evaporated milk (you can also use cream)
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1 handful coriander, chopped finely
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 3 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Drizzle sweet potatoes with olive oil, poke some holes in each one and bake them at 180C in either the oven or air fryer, until very tender. Leave the oven on whilst you peel the sweet potatoes.
- Allow to cool slightly, and peel the skins back, keeping them in large pieces if possible.
- Arrange the sweet potato skins on a baking tray / air fryer tray, and dry out in the oven / airfryer until they are firmer, but not burnt. Transfer to roller towel to firm up completely and become crispy. You can now put the oven off. Save the skins until later.
- Add your onion to the olive oil in a large pot and brown slowly, until glassy.
- Cut half of the chorizo sausages into rounds and add to the onion, stirring for a few minutes to release the oils and crisp slightly.
- Add the peeled sweet potatoes and chicken stock (add the stock in parts, depending on how thick you want your soup), allowing to simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring regularly.
- At this point, you can use a hand blender and roughly blend the soup to get a smoother consistency, but do not blend everything as you want some chunks of chorizo!
- Season to taste and stir in the chilled evaporated milk. You can also use cream, but I prefer the taste of evaporated milk.
- In a seperate pan, heat up a bit more olive oil. Dice the rest of the chorizo sausage finely, and add to the pan with the pumpkin seeds and coriander. Sautee together to create a crispy crumb to top the soup with. This should take about 5 minutes.
- For the rolls, I simply used a kilogram of store bought wholewheat dough, divided into four equal parts, arranged in your favourite shape. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking paper, and brush with melted butter. Top with fresh rosemary (or any herb of your choice), flakey sea salt and pumpkin seeds. Bake at 180C for about 35 minutes, until slightly browned and a cake tester comes out clean.
- To serve the soup, top with the chorizo and herb crumb, add some sweet potato skin chips, a grind of black pepper and a beautiful glass of Chardonnay. Oh, and a roll with melty butter.