I know posting a recipe for a thick and luscious soup in the dead of summer won’t be the most popular thing I’ve done, but hey, it happens! I ended up here after visiting one of my favorite food blogs a while ago, 101 Cookbooks, and seeing a recipe for a beautiful coconut broccoli soup. I added it to my “must make” list and moved on with my day. I haven’t gotten around to making it yet, but last week when I found myself with a pile of sweet potatoes I needed to get rid of, the soup came to mind and inspired me to turn them into this dish. Aften enjoying my first bowl, I don’t regret the decision to make soup in summer one bit. This is fast and easy to make. With a line-up including yellow curry powder and coconut porter, you get big flavor out of a few ingredients. Once the potatoes are cooked and pureed, you can add pretty much anything you want to the soup to make it your own. I went with spinach and chickpeas, but you could add chicken, shrimp, kale, lentils, swiss chard, etc. and the result would be just as good.
For the beer, I went with a coconut porter because I wanted the soup to have a coconut curry flavor and the malty sweetness + roasty goodness of a porter is a great match for sweet potatoes. Also, porters and stouts make excellent liquid bases for soups and stews due to their typically low IBU count, which means you don’t have to worry about over the top bitterness during long simmering times. The use of the beer in this soup added a flavor dimension that the other base liquids, coconut milk and vegetable stock, just can’t do. A side of toasted bread is all you need to turn this into a meal.
What you need
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1.5 tbls coconut oil or olive oil
- 2 tbls yellow curry powder
- 2 lbs sweet potatoes, pealed and cubed
- 1.5 cups vegetable broth
- 1.5 cups coconut milk (light or full fat)
- 1.5 cups coconut porter (I used Maui Brewing’s Coconut Porter)
- 8 cups fresh spinach
- 15.5 oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
What you do
Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add in the onions and garlic, season with salt and pepper and cook them for 2 – 4 minutes until they are soft. Next, add in the curry powder and sweet potatoes and give everything a good stir. Cook for 2 minutes and then add in the broth and coconut milk. Season with salt and pepper and stir. Turn the heat up to high and bring the mixture to a boil. Once you reach a boil, bring to a simmer over low heat. Pour in the beer, cover, and let simmer for 25 – 30 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Once the potatoes are cooked, puree everything until very smooth with an immersion blender or regular blender (if using a regular blender, work in small batches and use a towel to cover the lid). Return the soup to the pot if you used a normal blender. Give the soup a taste and season one last time as needed. Stir in your spinach and chickpeas and serve! You can also freeze this soup and enjoy it at a later day for a quick meal.
