Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

I love browsing online through the many food blogs. I have such an exhaustive favorites library of favorite food blogs that I have only shared a few under my "food blog idols" list. I get so excited seeing what dishes look like, since many recipe books lack an abundance of photos. It gets my creative mind going as I so read some of the changes people have made to the recipe and seeing the feedback it gets. Anything that looks and sounds remotely good is something I feel that I have to try. The only problem with this is I end up making things only one time.





















But thanks to this great idea and suggestion http://tastingspoons.com/archives/114 over at tastingspoons.com, I have been able to create what she calls a soup library this winter. The cold weather seems so perfect for sitting down and enjoying a nice bowl of warm goodness. So with this idea I have been able to make more soup than the recipe calls for and freeze the extra for a later date.....and the kicker is....it takes up less room in the freezer. How genius is that? The technique is so simple. When the soup you have prepared has cooled, fill a ziploc bag and lay it flat on a cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer for a few hours or until the soup is frozen. Then you have a flat ziploc bag of soup that can stand upright in your freezer (I have three soups in my freezer pictured to the right). Again I ask, how genius is that?

One soup that I was dying to try this winter was the sweet potato and sausage soup I found it on one of my favorite food blogs, smittenkitchen.com. Each time I told one of my friends I made this sweet potato soup, they all seem so doubtful and declined an interest to taste it. But boy are they missing out (KOS, JPA and TCW). This soup is so hearty with a hint of sweetness from the sweet potatoes (there are regular potatoes in the soup as well so it is not too overpowering), a little spice from the chorizo (I used soy chorizo which surprisingly tasted great) and spinach! Seriously how does that not sound good. I served it with cornbread.......and I do have to say it is Delicious! It definitely got a thumbs up in my household. I even made extra and added it to my "soup library". And since winter is still debating on how long it is going to stay with us in Atlanta, I defrosted it last week, reheatd it in a pot and there you have it. I'm telling you it is one of the best soups I've had and never would have thought so.


Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup
(serves 8)
Printable Recipe

2 tbl extra-virgin olive oil
10 oz. of chorizo sausage, cut crosswise (I used soy chorizo and I was unable to cut it crosswise because it crumbled but it worked just fine)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic gloves, minced
2 pounds of sweet potatoes
1 pound of white skinned potatoes
6 cups of low sodium chicken broth
1 9oz bag of baby spinach

Peel the sweet potatoes and the white potatoes. For the sweet potatoes, quarter them lengthwise and then cut into ¼ inch thick slices. For the white potatoes, halve them lengthwise and then cut into ¼ inch thick slices. Set the potatoes aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large pot. Add the sausage and cook until it is browned, stirring often. When cooked, transfer the sausage to a paper towel to drain. To the large pot, add the onions and garlic. Cook until translucent, stirring often, approximately 5 minutes. Once cooked through, add all of the potatoes and cook until they begin to soften, stirring often. This will take approximately 12-15 minutes. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Make sure to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan (this is great flavor here). Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the potatoes are soft, stirring occasionally. After about 20 minutes, mash some of the potatoes in the pot using a potato masher or wooden spoon. Add the browned sausage to the soup. Then stir in the spinach and simmer until it has just wilted, approximately 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

adapted by Deb from Smitten Kitchen