Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

Served with Barbari bread

My husband loves my sweet potato soup and asked me last week to make another batch. I sometimes make it with orange juice, other times with plain stock, but this time round I wanted to give it a bit of a kick. I have a few recipe books and I wanted some ideas so I found a Jamie Oliver recipe that used sweet potatoes and in it he used chilli, lime and cumin. Well, I had chillies, cumin and lemon juice, so it was experiment time. The first batch I made was too heavy on the fresh chilli and it overpowered the flavour of the sweet potato, so I made a second identical batch, omitted the chilli and then mixed the two together. It's a nice combination.

2 onions
1oz / 25g butter
5 sweet potatoes
½ chopped red chilli (seeds removed)
2 tbsp lemon juice (or juice and rind of 1 fresh lemon)
3 tsp freshly ground cumin seeds (or 2 tsp ground cumin)
1 pint vegetable or chicken stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Peel and chop the onions.

Peel and chop the sweet potatoes into even sized chunks

Melt the butter and cook the onions until soft.

Add the chilli, cumin and lemon juice and cook for a further minute to release the flavours.

Add the stock, and then add the sweet potatoes and seasoning.

Cook for 40 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are soft.

Purée the soup, return to pan and reheat.

Curried Parsnip and Potato Soup

Served with Barbari bread

I've lost count of the times I've bought parsnips with every intention of roasting them, only to forget and find them a couple of days later in the fridge just starting to wrinkle. I won't waste food and I believe that pretty much anything can be made into a simple meal. Soups are perfect for using up vegetables beyond their best. I've added potato to this recipe.  You can use just parsnips and then adjust the fluid and curry powder to taste.  It makes quite a thick soup, so when I've puréed it, I add a small amount of boiling water to thin it down a little.


1lb parsnips
1 large potato
1 large onion
1oz / 25g butter
1 level teaspoon hot curry powder
2 pints (1.1 litres) chicken stock or vegetable stock if you prefer to keep it vegetarian
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Peel and chop the onion.

Peel and cut the parsnips and potatoes into even sized chunks.


Melt butter in a large pan and gently fry for five minutes until soft but not brown.  Add the curry powder and cook for a further minute.  Keep stirring or the spice will catch on the heat.

Stir in the stock and season with salt and pepper.

Add the parsnips and potatoes and bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer gently, covered for 40 minutes or until vegetables are soft.

Purée the soup and then return to the pan to reheat

This soup can be frozen.