Roast Your Sweet Potatoes First For Soup With Bolder Flavors

There are many types of potatoes available for the taking, but sweet potatoes are the ideal ingredient for a creamy, nutty, and slightly sweet soup to warm you up. Like the varieties of potatoes, there are a plethora of sweet potato soup recipes but there's one technique that will spruce up any rendition with bolder flavors and creamier texture. It's all about roasting, which is a relatively easy step one can take before turning the tubers into a pot of homemade soup.

Take a note from Tasting Table's spicy sweet potato soup from recipe developer Maren Epstein. There are a couple of reasons why the extra step of roasting sweet potatoes is important. First, when you roast vegetables like sweet potatoes, the heat will break down enzymes and highlight the sugars found inside. This will enhance the nutty and sweet flavors the potato is known for, giving layers of depth to your soup. Another perk is that it will soften the insides so that it's easy to blend the potatoes into a creamy soup with no chunks in the pot. According to Epstein's guidance, you need to roast the sweet potatoes for about 45 minutes, but the boost in flavor and texture is worth the extra time.

Before you go to roast the sweet potatoes, peel and dice them into small, even pieces so the ingredient cooks evenly in less time. This also makes the blending that comes later a bit easier. Now, it's time for seasoning. For the spicy soup, Maren Epstein uses sea salt, curry powder, chili powder, and cumin. To step up the heat levels, use more chili powder or add cayenne pepper to the sweet potatoes. And if spicy food isn't your preference, use milder but flavorful spices like garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, ground thyme, or cumin seeds.

After the potatoes are cooked according to the recipe, you'll work on the base of the soup. When it's time to incorporate everything together, add the potatoes to the pot, cook, then throw it all in a blender to achieve the creamy consistency. Another technique is to use your immersion blender to transform the ingredients into a soup directly in your Dutch oven or large pot. This will get you all of those deep, roasted flavors with even less clean up. And if you have extra tubers left and want to try another recipe, cook our honey roasted sweet potatoes recipe that also requires your new roasting skills.