This creamy but light Sweet Potato Coconut Curry Soup is full of cozy spices and bulked up with white rice.
As I sit here writing this post, I’m giving in to the first cold to hit our house this season. As it moved from person to person, I tried to hide, but it found me. I started out so optimistic. Positive, reinforcing thoughts filled my mind as I cooked and cared for the sickies.
I’m going to be fine, just fine. Just keep moving.
These people obviously don’t know how to take care of themselves.
My immune system has been bolstered by years and years of exposure to these things.
And, then I started sneezing, and coughing, and…well, you know the rest. So, I give in cold. You have exactly 24 hours to do your thing, so go for it. I’m hunkered down with my pillow, my snuggle puppy Bruno, and a hot cup of tea. But that’s all I’m giving you, 24 hours.
Do you think that will work?
Just before this thing hit, I was inspired by all the sick people around me to make this soup. It is exactly what the doctor ordered. It’s creamy, but light. Spiced with curry, garam masala, and a touch of cayenne for just the right kick. Brown sugar adds a touch of sweetness and I threw in some white rice for texture and to make the soup a bit more substantial for my boys.
And the rest is legend.
The grocery list – red-skinned sweet potatoes or yams, lite coconut milk, Jasmine white rice, brown sugar, chicken broth, curry powder, garam masala, cayenne pepper, salt, garlic, and cilantro.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Wash and scrub your sweet potatoes and wrap them each in a sheet of foil.
Bake for about an hour or till tender all the way through when pierced with a knife. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
While the sweet potatoes are cooking, prepare the rice. Bring 1-1/4 cups water to boil in a small saucepan and add the rice. Turn heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes or till the water is absorbed. Remove from heat and set aside.
When potatoes are cool enough to handle, the skin will easily come off with a paper towel. Remove and discard all of the skin.
Baking the sweet potatoes is the most time consuming part of this recipe. You’ll need about 3 cups of cooked sweet potato. A little more or a little less is fine.
I love this Better Than Boullion Chicken Base. It’s organic, reduced sodium, and creates a lovely, rich broth. It stays fresh in the fridge, you can make up only what you need, and make it as strong or weak as you like. I use it anytime a recipe calls for chicken broth. I’m a fan.
Place a large pot or Dutch oven over medium low heat and add lite coconut milk and chicken broth.
In goes 1 teaspoon of minced garlic. Warm the mixture for a few minutes but be careful not to let it come to a boil.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the sweet potatoes, in pieces, to make it easier to puree.
I used my immersion blender to puree the mixture. If you are a soup fan, I highly recommend you acquire one of these little guys. They allow you to puree the mixture right in the pot, clean and easy. Blend it till smooth and velvety. If you don’t have an immersion blender, transfer the soup to a blender or food processor and puree it in batches, returning it to the pot when smooth.
The pot goes back to the stove over medium heat. Time to add the seasoning. A couple of tablespoons of brown sugar to sweeten it up just a bit, a touch of salt, curry powder, garam masala, a touch of cayenne. When you open the garam masala, give it a whiff. I love this stuff. I want to pour it in little bowls and place it around my house. I won’t, but I want to.
Add the rice and allow the mixture to simmer. Let it simmer about 15 minutes to allow the spices to work their magic. The rice will help to thicken it up as it simmers.
Soup’s on!
Garnish with a little chopped cilantro for some pretty contrast and even more flavor.
Pure comfort.
Sweet Potato Coconut Curry Soup
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked red-skinned sweet potatoes from 2 small or 3 large sweet potatoes
- ½ cup white rice Jasmine
- 1 ¼ cups water
- 13.5 ounces lite coconut milk
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons curry powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper or to taste
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Wash and scrub sweet potatoes. Wrap in aluminum foil and bake for about 50 minutes to an hour or till soft all the way through when pierced with a knife. Remove from oven and allow to cool. When cool enough to handle, remove skins with a paper towel and discard.
- Meanwhile, prepare rice by bringing 1-1/4 cups water to boil over HIGH heat. Add rice, stir, lower heat and cover pan. Simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes or until all water has been absorbed and rice is cooked. Remove pan from heat and set aside.
- Place a large, heavy bottomed pot or Dutch oven over MEDIUM-LOW heat. Add lite coconut milk, chicken broth, and minced garlic. Allow mixture to get warm but do not allow to boil. Add about 3 cups of cooked sweet potato. Remove pot from heat and using an immersion blender, blend the sweet potato into the mixture in pan until smooth. Return pan to heat and add brown sugar, salt, curry powder, garam masala, and cayenne pepper. Add cooked rice and turn heat down to low. Allow soup to simmer for about 15 minutes. Soup will thicken as it simmers. Remove from heat when the soup is heated through and cooked to desired consistency.
- Ladle into bowls and garnish individual servings with cilantro.
- Reheats very well. If soup thickens too much in refrigerator, add a little water or additional chicken broth to thin out before reheating in microwave or on stove.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated using generic ingredients, and is an estimate not a guarantee. For more accurate results, please refer to the labels on your ingredients at home.
Adapted from Eat, Live, Run
I made this last night and it was delicious! Thanks again for another wonderful recipe Val.
I’m so glad to hear this, Gina. I LOVE this soup!
Looks delicious, Valerie, sharing on my FB page and pinning! ~ Melissa
Thanks so much Melissa!
Just finished making this soup recipe … It is REALLY yummy! Thanks so much for sharing it with me.
I now know what Garam Masala is! Wow! Can’t believe I’ve cooked all these years without it!
This is one of my favorites too Shae! So glad it worked out well for you.
I am confused as to why you would specify “lite” coconut milk – coconut oil, thus whole coconut milk, is a medium chain fatty acid and actually speeds up your metabolism thus helping lose weight faster. Maybe a little research into coconut products is in order.
Hello Jan. Of course you can use either in this recipe. Lite coconut milk is not just lower in fat but also has less than half the calories per serving as the regular variety. It is a personal preference for me to chose the lower fat, lower calorie version but it would be wonderful either way.
You don’t have to wait for fall to make this. I loved this soup. Already made it twice this month. I love thai food and this was just about as close as you can get and it was so easy. Thanks for sharing! It is a new staple in this household. 🙂
This was the first time I’ve tried a recipe from your site, and it was delicious. I made it for my curry-phobic in-laws, so I reduced the amount of spice, but it was still really good, just more sweet than spicy-sweet. The second time I made it I was trying to use up a bunch of butternut squash/pumpkin puree, so I used that instead of the potatoes, which was a bit different but still hit the spot.
My wife made this for me on Saturday; fantastic.
Rich, creamy, fragrant.
So glad to hear you enjoyed it! Thanks for coming back to let me know 🙂
I stumbled across your blog via http://foodporndaily.com/, the Sticky Asian Glazed Chicken Wings looked killer, gonna try to get my wife to make those for the Broncos/Patriots game. I’m a half-decent cook, but I’m an over-the-road trucker, don’t get to cook as much as I’d like to, so I live vicariously through the online offerings of folks such as yourself. Great photography, lots of stuff I’ll be trying out, we’ll let you know how it turns out.
I love love love sweet potatoes, and this sounds really wonderful with coconut milk. And thanks for letting me (us) know about Better than Bouillon because I’ve been curious about that product (I usually buy Trader Joes broth). I’ll check it out for sure – since you are a fan! Very interesting that you added rice in this soup. I recently found out that I had immersion blender all these years and I didn’t even know I had it. Duh. I’ll be making this soup soon!
I love sweet potatoes too Nami. So do my boys. Be sure to let me know what you think!