Sunday, October 26, 2008

why do fools fall in love?



I always find myself with a great sense of purpose in this city in the fall. The sentiment is completely unwarranted yet it never fails to surface year after year after year. When I am walking I cease to wander. I always know exactly where I am going. The future is bright and clear and close. Then I stray into the menagerie that is Whole Foods at 730pm on a Sunday and am immediately deflated of all concept of higher direction or intention.

Nevertheless, I still get a pretty good soup out of it.

You Will Need:

3-4 sweet potatoes (hell...the more the better i say)
1 Apple (any variety, but a sturdy cooking apple works best)
1 med. sized onion
salt/pepper
cinnamon
nutmeg
1 tbs. olive oil

To Make:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Slide the sweet potatoes in on a baking tray and let them cook until they are nice and tender...about forty five minutes (but a few fork pricks should let you know if they're ready or not). In the meantime, core and thinly slice your apple. Dice the onion up into good sized chunks. Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan over med-high heat and dump in the apples and onion. As it cooks down, add cinnamon and nutmeg. Be hearty. This party will both smell AND taste good (if you're smart, you'll steal a few slices of the apple before adding it to the rest of the soup. yum).

Let the apple and onion mixture cook through until the apples are soft. Cover and set aside. When the sweet potatoes are cooked all the way through, slice them in half and scoop their innards into a big pot. Add the apples and onions. Add a tsp. each of salt and pepper. Combine with six cups of water and turn on the heat--let this warm all the way through for about ten minutes, so everything is nice and mixed and pulpy.

Next you'll have to puree the mixture down. I did this part in small batches because I only have a tiny Cuisinart, but it still worked beautifully. Once the entire batch was done, I transferred everything back into the original pot and turned the heat on low so that I could spice it to taste. That meant loads more cinnamon and nutmeg (I can't get enough) and a dash or so more of salt.

Turn off heat and serve with some slices of cool cucumber as adornment. Ta-da!






7 comments:

Cate said...

Mmmm. I make a soup identical to this, but with squash instead of sweet potatoes. I need to try this version!

Anonymous said...

Great post. I feel like you're making a wonderfully varied cookbook. You on facebook or anything? A link to mine is in the Meta page on my site.

Mark Scarbrough said...

I love simple soups like this. The more I do this kind of thing, the more I realize that good food cooked simply is a key to culinary happiness. What a gorgeous recipe.

Maria said...

I just made a similar soup but with butternut squash. I will have to try the sweet potatoes next time!

Caitlin said...

i miss your face. and your food. and your love.

dragonflies said...

You are well on your way to having a "coffee table/cookbook" published in print!

sweeetheartfever said...

mark: thank you so much! and i agree. i am a fan of simplicity. cooking is the only place in my life where i seem to have mastered it. haha.

maria: yes! i love butternut squash soup. that's kind of my go-to comfort food. :)

kt: come home. but don't because you're probably having an amazing time. but come home.

sadie: what an awesome surprise!!! haha...and maybe one of these days a book! a girl can dream, can't she?