Savory Sweet Potato Vegetable Soup
This Savory Sweet Potato Vegetable Soup is creamy, packed with veggies, and loaded with flavor. This is the ultimate comfort soup. If you are a fan of wild rice soup, then you will probably be a fan of this soup too. The flavor profile and texture is very similar, in fact it was based off an old wild rice soup recipe on my blog.
I’ve been on a soup kick this winter, as soup in general has been such a comfort food for me. I love my soups packed with all the wonderful plant-based goodness. If you couldn’t tell by all my soup recipes, I love creamy soups, sweet potatoes, beans, and veggies! It’s pretty fascinating how such similar ingredients can be used to make an entirely different soup. Plant-based foods are incredibly versatile—there is so much you can do with them.
Several years ago, Dr. Greger at NutritionFacts.org did a whole series on arsenic in rice. I was never a really big rice eater to start with, but want to offer a recipe on my blog that is similar to the version I shared on here a while ago. I have been playing around with a few variations of this recipe and also testing some dairy-free combos. So this soup was created in that exploration!
I hope you and your loved ones enjoy this soup as much as my family does!
RECIPE NOTES:
There are so many variations you can take with this soup, so I wanted to make sure I provided all the options I have explored and come up with here. The pictures in this blog showcase a number of different variations I have recently made!
1. NUT-FREE: I made the cashew version of this the primary recipe, since it’s a bit smoother texture. I have not explored using seeds as a replacement to the original recipe, but feel free to try swapping 1 cup of pepitas for 1 cup of cashews– I have had a lot of success with this in past recipes. My “lighter” nut-free sauce is below. Simple blend all the ingredients together in a high speed blender until smooth. If using canned chickpeas or other white beans, feel free to add the remainder of the beans to the soup. s
- 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas or white beans
- 1 package of organic silken tofu (about 14-16 oz)
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast (feel free to use less if you desire)
- 1 tablespoon white miso paste
- 3-4 cups water
2. LIGHTER BROTH: if you’d still like to use the cashews, but don’t have a full cup of cashews or want to keep it lighter. Simply cut in half and use some tofu to help make it creamy.
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- 1 package of organic silken tofu (about 14-16 oz)
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast (feel free to use less if you desire)
- 1 tablespoon white miso paste
- 3-4 cups water
3. POTATOES: Feel free to use any kind of sweet potato (or even other potatoes you have on hand). Purple sweet potatoes add a really fun color to the dish– and can even turn the broth purple! This could be a fun meal experience for kids. If you want to use purple sweet potatoes and don’t want purple broth, cook the sweet potatoes separate and then add them to the soup just before serving. That being said, if you have roasted sweet potato cubes in your fridge right now– you can use them in the same way. Just add them to the soup when you add the broth!
4. WHOLE GRAINS: I left grains out of this recipe to keep the recipe pretty simple and quick. However, if you’d like to add some whole grains, such as quinoa or oat groats, feel free to do so! I’d suggest cooking them on the side and then adding in near the end of the cooking process.
4. SEASONINGS: I have made this recipe several times. My most recent experience was simply using things I have (we don’t have onion powder and the nutritional yeast stash is running low). I omitted the onion powder, probably used way less nutritional yeast, and the soup still turned out great! I have also made this recipe adding some bay leaves (about 3-4 leaves), so feel free to add those if you’d desire. I have a feeling a lot of people probably don’t keep miso on-hand, it’s something I started using in my cooking when I started working at NutritonFacts.org. It’s a great replacement for salt! So that being said, no miso, no problem! Omit it! And adjust the seasonings to your preference. I do have to say, if you are using a variation with the tofu, I find that the nutritional yeast really helps to mask some of the tofu flavors. Feel free to experiment and make this your own!
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 2 cups diced carrots
- 2-3 cups diced sweet potatoes
- ½ tablespoon garlic powder
- 1½ teaspoon thyme
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 4 cups chopped broccoli and/or cauliflower
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 3-4 cups water
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon white miso paste
- 1½ cups cooked white beans (e.g. Cannellini Great Northern) or 1- 15 oz BPA-free can of white beans, drained and rinsed
- black pepper, to taste
- crushed red pepper, to taste
- Wash and chop the veggies. In a large pot, sauté the onions in about 3-4 tablespoons of water until soft. Add the celery, carrots, and sweet potatoes and cook until the veggies start to soften. Add more water is needed to keep things from sticking.
- Add the garlic, thyme, and onion powder and toss around the veggies until they are coated. Add a little more water if needed.
- Toss in the broccoli and/or cauliflower and cook until lightly cooked.
- While the veggies are cooking, combine the cashews, 3-4 cups water, nutritional yeast, and miso in a high speed blender. Blend until smooth. Add more water if desired for a thinner soup.
- Pour the cashew broth into the pot with the veggies. Add the white beans, and simmer on medium heat for about 15-20 minutes. Stir the mixture often to keep it from burning and sticking to the bottom of the pot. If the cashew sauce starts to stick to the bottom, lower the heat.
- Add crushed red pepper and/or pepper to taste and enjoy!
Kristina DeMuth
Kristina DeMuth