Creamy Sweet potato & Coriander Soup

Sweet potato is a rarely used vegetable in many kitchens. Hailing from south of India, I have so far tasted only sweet potato palya. 

This is how I include sweet potato in my diet. I simply cook the vegetable. Peel off skin and sprinkle chaat masala, specially the kala chaat masala that my Delhi friend once gave me. Sometimes, I add the sweet potato puree to Kheer where ground coconut is added. I once made sweet potato puran poli.

Sadly, this nutritious vegetable is not commonly used in south India. To incorporate this nutrition rich vegetable, I try my best to create new dishes and this is one of them. Here, I prepared a soup where I coupled the nutty flavor of sweet potato with the flavors of the south - coriander and ginger. Obviously, this combination beat the flavor of sweet potato which is a good news to many people who have not developed a taste for sweet potato and still want to include that in their diet. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Sweet potato - 200 gms preferably organic

Red onion - 1 large

Fresh ginger - 1 inch

Coriander leaves - handful

Salt as required

Peppercorn - crushed or powdered - 1 teaspoon

Oil or Butter - 1 tablespoon

Milk - 1 cup

Method:

Pressure cook the sweet potato and peel off skin. Keep it aside.

Chop onion length wise.

Peel off ginger skin and wash well.

Wash the coriander leaves.

Keep aside 2 sprigs of coriander leaves for garnishing and grind the remaining leaves with ginger with just enough water.

Heat oil/butter in a kadai in medium heat.

Fry the onions until its tender. Keep aside a tablespoon of this onion for garnishing.

Now, pour the ground coriander and fry for a minute.

Add salt as required.

When its cooking, add the cooked sweet potato to the blender and grind with 1 cup water until the sweet potato becomes a smooth paste.

Add this to the boiling coriander and mix well.

Add peppercorn - crushed or powdered.

Allow the content to come to a boil.

Meanwhile, pour one cup milk into the blender and shake well.

When the soup comes to a boil, turn off heat and gently pour the milk and mix well.

This healthy soup is ready to be served. Garnish with fried onions and coriander leaves before serving.

This soup can be served cold too.

Regular milk can be substituted with coconut milk for an enhanced flavor.