Sweet Potato Coconut Soup Recipe

 the soup drizzled with sesame oil and paired with fresh baguette

This is one of my family's favorite soups. It's fairly easy and is vegan...yay! and yay! I created hacked this soup recipe after eating at a local Thai restaurant and tasting their delicious take on Sweet Potato Soup. This one obviously yields way more for way less.

Ingredients:                                                 

• 2 large sweet potatoes (mine were about 2lbs. each)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 inch piece of fresh grated ginger
• 1 1/2 tbsp. red curry paste
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/2 tbsp. vegetable base (or 2 cups low-sodium broth of your choosing)
• sesame oil

Serve with: Fresh baguette

Steps:

Steam or bake your sweet potatoes until tender all the way through. (I baked mine in foil for 2 hours). Set aside.

Next, in a large pot sauté onion until soft. Add ginger. Sauté for 2 min. ( I forgot to saute the ginger with the onion, so I added it with the curry paste)

Add curry paste. Melt down and combine with onion and ginger. 

Add coconut milk and vegetable base. Simmer for 5 min. 

Add sweet potato. I simply spooned the insides out with a large spoon. 

How beautiful is that bright orange!

I then poured this mixture into my Ninja and took it for a ride (I blended it until smooth). I typically use my emersion blender, but it's currently packed away on its way to Guam. You can read about that here.  

Then pour the mixture back into the pot and heat for about 10 more min. This helps all the flavors to combine.

Now, serve with a drizzle of sesame oil and a piece of fresh baguette. Yummo!

                               -Anjelica

Tamari Chili Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

When I went back to the states for Christmas, I sent my hubby, S to the grocery store for a gift card to round out our mostly homemade gifts.  While there, S got a bit overwhelmed by the selection of wonderful goodies that we cannot get here in sunny Puerto Rico.  Just one of the tradeoffs for the island lifestyle.  I was already familiar with that feeling as I had been home a few months prior to that trip and had experienced the same crippling elation at the sight of such a varied selection of fresh produce. 

S came home with a number of tasty treats that day, most of which were some sort of produce.  However, he also got a nice big bag of spicy tamari roasted pumpkin seeds from the bulk foods section.  We had surely eaten this delightful snack before, but it had never been a staple food for us.  When you move to an island, your eating habits change a bit (or a lot) based on what is actually available.  At the time, we lamented the fact that we had discovered yet another snack that we could only have when we visited the states. 

Luckily for us, during our trip, we were not able to finish eating all of the pumpkin seeds so we brought them home with us.  I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but S and I finished off the snack at some point and we were very sad.  Then I started thinking, I can get raw pumpkin seeds, soy sauce, and cayenne pepper in Puerto Rico.  In fact, I already had everything but the seeds in my own house.  Why couldn’t I make my own?

That, my friends, is the day that chili spiced tamari pumpkin seeds were born.  Or made, as the case may be.  Yes, I realize that tamari and soy sauce are not the same thing, and technically I use Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, but “chili spiced liquid aminos pumpkin seeds” or “chili spiced soy sauce pumpkin seeds” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.  And this is my recipe, so I call it what I want.  J 

This recipe makes mildly flavored pumpkin seeds.  As you get to know me better, you will learn that I have a salt problem.  Well, I don’t think it’s really a problem, although S likes to tell me otherwise on a semi daily basis.  I also LOVE spicy food; the hotter the better.  As a result, I actually use much more cayenne and soy sauce than what is listed.  My recommendation is to taste as you go, using the recipe as a starting point.      

So, without further ado, I bring you the recipe for this life-changing, addictive treat.  ¡buen provecho!

 Tamari chili spiced pumpkin seeds

Ingredients:

2 cups raw hulled pumpkin seeds

½ tablespoon coconut oil

2-3   tablespoons liquid aminos, soy sauce, or tamari (or to taste)

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (or to taste)

Directions:

     1.  Heat the coconut oil in large pan over medium heat. 

     2.  Add the pumpkin seeds and sauté for 3-5 minutes until they begin to turn golden brown and pop. 

     3.  Add soy sauce and cayenne and sauté for another minute until dry. 

     4.  Taste for seasoning and add more if desired.

     5.  Finish sautéing until dry and golden.  

Donna...aka mindful