Oh man, I’ve been way into soup lately.  It’s the perfect time of year for it too.  One of my favourite things about making soup is that you can easily make a huge batch in the crockpot, share it with friends, and still have leftovers to throw in your freezer to save for a cold winter night.  I’ve got about six different kinds in my freezer already… but my newest one is a delicious concoction made with maple-roasted sweet potatoes, pumpkin puree, and a hint of spice–perfect for the season we just started! I brought it into work for my coworkers and even one who said she hated pumpkin loved it!  You can really play with the flavors a lot here: make it sweet, make it spicy, or whatever you like.  Here’s a basic recipe of what I did, but feel free to change it up! 

Roasted Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Soup

Sweet Potatoes:
2-4 Sweet Potatoes, chopped into small-ish wedges/slices
Vegetable Oil/Earth Balance
Maple Syrup
Soy Sauce/Tamari
Liquid Smoke

Sautéed Veggies:
Vegetable Oil/Earth Balance
2-4 Shallots
Garlic
Carrots
Any other veggies: peppers, celery, squash, zucchini…

The Rest:
2 cans pureed pumpkin (can also sub butternut squash*)
vegetable broth/stock
almond/non-dairy milk
Spices, to taste: salt, pepper, thyme, basil, parsley, cayenne, paprika, nutmeg…

For the Sweet Potatoes, marinade them in the sauces.  Using some vegetable oil or butter, roast them in the oven at about 400 degrees until they are soft and beginning to brown on the outside.  Pull them out every 5-10 minutes and mix them up, spooning the sauces over them again to keep them from drying out. 

For the veggies, sauté them over medium heat until just cooked.  You should be getting a wonderful aroma from the shallots and garlic mingling (as well as the maple sweet potatoes in the oven!)

To throw it all together, take your roasted sweet potatoes and put them in your crockpot.  Add a bit of almond milk or veggie stock and mash it up just like making mashed potatoes.  Add your veggie stock to thin it out into more of a soup, and add the pureed pumpkin.  Mix and mash again, add your veggies, and add whatever spices.  Add more stock/milk to thin it out if desired.  Add spices to taste.  Let cook/marinade on low heat for at least an hour (or until you can’t stand it anymore it smells so good!). Share with friends.  Listen to them marvel at your wonderful cooking abilities.  Enjoy.

*I actually hit a bit of a snag when I was making this, as I couldn’t find pureed pumpkin anywhere!  Finally, at Whole Foods I found canned pumpkin pie mix, but I knew that this would be far too sweet.  To make up for this, I used a can of the pumpkin pie mix and a can of unsweetened pureed butternut squash, cut the maple syrup to very minimal in the sweet potatoes, and upped the savory spices to cover the sweetness.