American

Maple Sweet Potato Soup With Bacon

After falling off my step in Body Step this morning in an epic gym class fail (I may have been singing Shake It Off and may have glanced to look at myself in the mirror and may lost my balance), to then being literally coughed on by a guy on the street. Like he actually coughed INTO my face (I didn’t open my mouth for 10 minutes in the hope the germs would die in the humidity, obviously).

*inhale and exhale*

With the intention and need to drastically improve my heinous day, I managed to turn dessert into dinner and it’s holy freakin shit amazing. It’s like a sticky cinnabon bun, meets sweet potato pie, meets smiling Canadians … except for dinner.

Maple Sweet Potato Soup with Bacon

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

Olive oil
3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into cubes
1 onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1/2tsp nutmeg
1/2tsp cayenne pepper
1 cinnamon stick or 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
3 cups of chicken stock
1/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup of maple syrup – see note
1/2 tsp salt
4 slices of bacon

Method

Pre heat your oven to 180 and line a baking tray. Drizzle some olive oil and salt over the chopped sweet potato and bake for 25 minutes or until soft and golden.

Heat a little olive oil in a large pot then over a low heat gently cook the onion and garlic for 10 minutes. You want the onion to be wilted and translucent.Stir through the spices and roasted potato.

Once you can smell the spices, pour over the chicken stock. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer and leave to cook for 20 minutes. In another pan, fry your bacon then leave aside.

Remove the cinnamon stick (if using) then puree the soup using a handheld blender or food processor. Stir through the milk, maple syrup and salt and bring to the boil once again. Taste now – if you want it sweeter, add more maple. If it’s too sweet, add a little extra salt.

Serve with the bacon on top mmmmmmmmmm.

Kitchen notes...

Don’t use golden syrup, they are very different. If you don’t have real maple syrup or find it a little expensive to use, substitute for 2 tsp of brown sugar or just leave out.