Years ago, I ordered a bowl of sweet potato soup in a small bistro in Burlington, Vermont. I expected a sweet, creamy soup. What I got was a sweet, creamy soup with a noticeable spicy kick. I loved it! At home, I recreated the soup and included the recipe in my second cookbook, How to Cook Gluten-Free . That recipe, like the one served at the bistro, contained dairy. Several readers asked for a dairy-free variation of the recipe. So I created one.

It’s a remarkable simple soup to make. Start by “sweating” onions, celery, and garlic in a little olive oil. Then add cubed sweet potatoes, chicken (or vegetable) broth, and spices. That’s it! The soup cooks for about 40 minutes.  You want the sweet potato pieces to almost fall apart when pierced with a fork. Then blend the soup until smooth. If you own an immersion blender, use it. If not, process the soup in batches in a traditional blender. You don’t want to overfill the blender or the soup could erupt from the blender and burn you. Trust me, you don’t want that to happen.

At this point you could just enjoy the soup. Or you could spice it up! I highly recommended adding a spicy kick to the soup. Smoky chipotle compliments the sweet potato flavor really well. I add ground chipotle powder. If you don’t have chipotle powder on hand, use chipotle hot sauce or regular hot sauce. Around our house, we like the soup with an almost aggressive kick. To achieve this, I add about two teaspoons of ground chipotle powder. Start by adding a half teaspoon and go from there. The heat level of chipotle powders varies from brand to brand. It’s better to start with a little and add more as needed.

To serve, I usually just throw together a simple spinach salad and call it a day. However, it we’re feeling hungry, I brown some ham or sausage as the soup cooks. A link of sausage, a spinach salad, and this soup make for a tasty–and hearty–winter meal. Enjoy the recipe!

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Spicy Paleo Sweet Potato Soup

This sweet potato soup comes together in about one hour. To save time, peel and cube the sweet potatoes the night before you plan on making the soup. To save even *more* time, prep all of your vegetables. I like to do this before I go to bed, when the house is quiet. By prepping your vegetables in advance, you save about a half an hour of prep time. While this soup makes a great meal on its own, it's also great with ham or a link or two of browned sausage. Cook the ham or sausage as the soup bubbles away. Then serve with a big salad--I really like spinach salad with this soup.

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes minutes

Total Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author GlutenFreeBaking.com

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion finely chopped
• 2 stalks celery thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or put through a garlic press
• 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced (about 3 cups)
• 5 cups homemade chicken stock or store-bought reduced-sodium broth
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 to 2 teaspoons ground chipotle pepper optional

Instructions

• In a large soup pot (5 quart), heat olive oil over medium heat, until it shimmers but doesn't smoke. Add the onion, celery, and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, for 7 to 9 minutes, until the vegetables are very soft but not brown. If they begin to brown, lower the heat.
• Add the sweet potatoes, chicken stock, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low. Simmer (look for occasional gentle bubbles) for 35 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are very tender. (Test the sweet potatoes with a fork. They should break apart easily when pierced by the tines of a fork.)
• Place a large bowl next to the blender. Purée the soup in batches, never filling the blender more than half full, until the soup is smooth.) Pour each puréed batch into the waiting bowl. Repeat until all the soup has been puréed.
• Return the soup to the pot. Stir with a wooden spoon. Reheat over medium-low heat but don't bring soup to a boil. Taste and add more salt if you think it needs it. Add 1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle, taste. Adjust heat level by adding more chipotle as desired. Ladle the soup into individual bowls and serve hot. Store leftover soup in a covered container in the refrigerator for four days.

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Thick but not too rich: a gluten-free corn chowder conundrum.

You know those foods that you just prefer a certain way? I’m like that with chowder. I like my chowder thick but not ultra-rich. Sounds like an oxymoron, right? Let me explain.

Often chowder’s thickness and richness comes from heavy cream. A chowder made with lots of cream, to me, blunts the delicate flavor of the corn. But I still want my soup thick! To work around this problem—and still enjoy a thick consistency—I up the amount of sweet rice flour I use to thicken the soup. Instead of a 1:1 ratio of fat to flour, you use a 1:2 ratio. I decided to omit the cream altogether. However, if you prefer a thick and rich soup, go ahead and add cream.

By the way, this chowder has a little spicy kick under the sweetness of the corn. If you prefer chowder without the kick, just leave out the hot sauce.

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Gluten-Free Corn Chowder

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author GlutenFreeBaking.com

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 ounce; 28 grams)
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 1/4 cup sweet rice flour (1 ounce; 28 grams)
• 3 cups milk, warmed (24 ounces; 680 grams)
• 2-3 cups homemade chicken stock or store-bought reduced-sodium broth
• 2 cups corn, either fresh cut from the cob or frozen
• 2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced (about two cups)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

Instructions

• Melt butter in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until tender but not brown, about three minutes.
• Switch to a whisk and stir in sweet rice flour. The flour will coat the onions and be very dry. Whisking constantly, cook for three minutes. In a slow and steady steam, add milk. Allow the paste to absorb the milk as you add it. This will prevent clumping. At first, add the milk slowly; as you add more milk, you can slightly increase the pouring speed until it’s all in. Stir in the chicken stock, corn, potatoes, thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.
• Bring the soup to a gentle boil. Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer (look for occasional gentle bubbles) for 45 minutes.
• Ladle about two cups of the soup into a blender and blend until smooth. The soup shouldn’t fill the blender more than halfway. If you have a small blender, do this in batches.
• Return the puréed soup to the pot and stir to combine. Add the hot pepper sauce. If you prefer your chowder thin, add the additional cup of stock. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed. Simmer over medium heat for five minutes, or until the soup is hot. Serve.

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