Sounds delicious, but this post isn't so much about sharing a great recipe as it is about how I saved a botched dish.
The Mistake
This was the first dish I had made with the sweet potatoes. It was a gratin of sorts.
It looked great. But like I said, it tasted bland, bland, bland. So the pretty looking but pretty bland dish was wrapped and stayed in the fridge for a day until I decided to turn it into soup.
The Fix
To make the soup, I sauteed a large shallot and a celery stalk in a little oil olive. When tender, I added the rest of the botched baked sweet potato and apple dish (omitting the oranges), some vegetable broth, and simmered with a cover for 30 minutes.
After simmering for 30 minutes, I pureed the soup with an immersion blender. Seasoned to taste with salt and pepper. The soup seemed a little watery, so I simmered it uncovered until it reduced a little.
Sage Goat Cheese
I minced two large leaves of fresh sage and mixed them with 2 ounces of softened goat cheese (the cheese softened while I prepared the soup). I spread some over toasted sourdough bread.
Done!
Before serving, I swirled in a little maple syrup.
Ingredients and Method
Because of what happened here, it's hard to put an actual recipe together. But these are the ingredients and this is probably the method I'd use to make this soup. And it's really a lot easier than it looks!
1 large sweet potato, or 2 regular size,
mine was a Jewel and was really large
1 or 2 apples
I used 2 med golden delicious apples, with skins, because
the sweet potato was so large
Olive oil,
enough to coat so apples and sweet potatoes won't stick to pan
1/8 ts coriander,
I chose coriander because of it's hint of sage, but why not try
cinnamon, nutmeg or your favorites
1 large sage leave, minced, or 1/8 ts of ground sage
1 medium shallot, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
32 oz. vegetable stock (could use less since I had to simmer it longer to reduce)
Peel and coarsely chop sweet potatoes and apples into similar size pieces. Toss with olive oil to coat. Spread over pre-heated baking sheet and bake until tender, 350 degrees for about 30-45 minutes. Check to make sure bottoms are not burning, maybe give them a toss. Meanwhile, saute in medium sauce pan diced shallot and celery in olive oil (or butter) until tender. Add sweet potatoes and apples, vegetable stock and simmer in covered pot for 30 minutes. Puree with immersion blender (or pour into food processor), if consistency is too watery, simmer until reduced to desired consistency. Or, if it's too thick, add more stock or water. Makes 4+ servings.
This recipe gave me the idea to use celery and onion (I prefer shallots): http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/roasted-sweet-potato-apple-soup-00000000006606/index.html
