note 1: the recipe reminded me so much of a potato chowder i made last winter, that i added a step that the recipe did not detail. i scooped out about 1/4 of the soup into my blender, in hopes of having something like a sweet potato chowder. the result was something akin to baby food. oh, how far from my intentions! should you try this recipe, skip step 5 below. this recipe should have stayed a soup rather than becoming a chowder.
note 2: i am posting the recipe i made, in part because none of the "fixes" i've since tried worked out perfectly. i made a large batch, so each time i take some out of the freezer, i try different things to improve it. adding more milk has been the biggest improvement (which has solidified my thought that i shouldn't have blended to begin with); i've also added more curry and cayenne pepper to help with the bland flavor. mike often thinks that i overdo the cayenne pepper, but in the case of this soup, he said that the spicy was a good contrast to the sweet potato flavor.
(this soup made me so sad that i wasn't even motivated to take a flattering picture of it! *sad*)
curried sweet potato chowder
6 medium sweet potatoes, cubed
1 large onion, diced
4 c milk
3 t curry powder
1 t cayenne pepper
1. boil sweet potatoes in a large pot until mostly tender - be careful not to over cook. drain the water, and set aside.
2. saute onion in a large pot until clear; drop heat to low.
3. gently fold sweet potatoes into sauteed onions, then add the milk.
4. turn heat up to medium, and stir vigilantly. i found that this mixture was prone to burning, so be careful to scrape your spoon against the entire bottom of the pot. bring to a boil, then drop heat to medium-low.
5. scoop 1/4 of soup into a blend; blend until smooth and add back to pot.
6. add curry and cayenne pepper.
this soup freezes very well, and smells good. ;-) i'm sorry to give it such a rough rating here - if you have tried something similar and it worked for you, please leave a comment with your tips!!
So, would you 1) try this recipe again and simply follow the directions? 2) would you compare against other similar recipes to see if you could figure out a way to get rid of the blandness? 3) are you guys still eating it even though you don't care for it? if so...wow!
ReplyDelete1) probably not - i think following the exact recipe would undoubtedly improve it, but this was such a huge flop for us, that i probably will just move on entirely from it.
Delete2) and 3) we are still eating it, so i am continuing to look for ways to tweak this one!! the cayenne pepper and milk seem like a good start, but it still needs more. when i defrost my next bag of it, i will probably do some research to find out which vegetables would go well (apart from peas, since we dislike them). i think having something else added would help with the texture and distract from blandness.
miss you, mindy!!! i wish we were more often in each other's paths!