By popular demand: peanut-soup recipe

My sweet-potato-and-peanut soup recipe became a topic of conversation at Swancon, and several people expressed a desire for it. I can't honestly remember whether I've posted it on this blog before, but it is tasty enough to bear repeating. Here, then, for all who take an interest in such things, it is:

SWEET POTATO AND PEANUT SOUP
(all disclaimers apply and your mileage may vary)

• Two large or three medium sweet potatoes
  
• 2 tablespoons cooking or olive oil
  
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
  
• 1 tablespoon chopped or grated ginger
  
• 1/2 onion, chopped fairly finely but don't get too obsessive
  
• 1 teaspoon cumin (crucial!!!)
  
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
  
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander SEED (optional, but it must be seed, not leaf)
  
• 1/4 teaspoon chilli powder or one chopped fresh chilli (more, less, or none as you prefer)
  
• 1 cup (aka a few really generous and slapdash big spoonsful) crunchy peanut butter
  
• 1 can (big or small, as you prefer, but big is better) coconut CREAM (not milk!)
  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar or honey (although if I'M making it, I double this amount)
  
• some water or stock to thin the soup as needed
  
• salt and black pepper to taste

Roast or microwave the sweet potatoes until they're soft right through (indulge your taste for horror and impale them with a skewer or knife to check). When they're done, leave them aside to cool (you'll thank me during the next step).

When the sweet potatoes are cool, or at least not dangerously hot, cut them open and scoop out the guts (more culinary horror here) into a bowl. Then mash them roughly, as you would for mashed potatoes. Me, I like to leave some lumps in. If you make it really pureed like baby food, it's, well, kind of disgusting. Like baby food.

Heat a large saucepan, with the heat set to "energetic and enthusiastic" (but not "enraged"). Add the oil. When that's hot as well, chuck in the onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, and spices, and cook them up for a few minutes (until the onion bits are soft, but stop before the garlic starts to get brown). Turn the heat down to "calm and reposed" (but not "limp and exhausted").

Chuck in the mashed sweet potatoes, the coconut cream, the peanut butter, and the brown sugar (or honey). Stir everything around for a while until it looks like one thing, not ten things. If it's too thick for your liking, add some water or stock.

Check whether it needs salt (it probably will; start with a quarter teaspoon and work from there) and/or pepper.

When it's steaming hot (but not necessarily boiling), you can eat.

In its slightly thicker form, this soup makes a wonderful sauce over couscous or rice and steamed veggies. I've also made variations where I chuck in a ton of macadamia nuts. Mmm, macadamias....

Eat well! And don't take these ingredients or proportions as gospel. I certainly don't. I just chuck stuff in a pot and hope for the best.

Source for this recipe: my own odd brain.