Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup is one of our favourite healthy soups to enjoy during the Fall harvest season.
Our healthy homemade Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup recipe is quick and easy to make, ready to serve in under an hour.
Spoon through a bowl of our Healthy Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup featuring flavourful ginger, apple, honey, maple syrup, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg and parsley.
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What Is Soup?
Soup is a liquid food, generally served warm or hot (but can also be served cold like gazpacho), that is prepared by combining meat or vegetables with stock or water.
Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavours are extracted, creating a rich broth.
Soups are similar to stews, and in some cases there may not be a clear distinction between the two. Soups generally have more liquid (broth) than chunkier and heartier stews.
In traditional French cuisine, soups are classified into two groups: clear soups (bouillon and consomme) and thick soups (purees, bisques, veloutes).
Purées are vegetable soups thickened with starch; bisques are made from puréed shellfish or vegetables thickened with cream; cream soups may be thickened with béchamel sauce; and veloutés are thickened with eggs, butter, and cream.
History of Soup
Evidence of the existence of soup can be found as far back as about 20,000 BC. Boiling was not a common cooking technique until the invention of waterproof containers, such as clay pots. To boil the water hot rocks were used.
The word soup comes from French soupe (broth), which comes through Vulgar Latin suppa (“bread soaked in broth”) from a Germanic source, from which also comes the word “sop”, a piece of bread used to soak up soup or a thick stew.
The word restaurant (meaning “restoring”) was first used in France in the 16th century, to refer to a highly concentrated, inexpensive soup, sold by street vendors, that was advertised as a cure to physical exhaustion. In 1765, a Parisian entrepreneur opened a shop specializing in such soups. This prompted the use of the modern word restaurant for eating establishments.
In America, the first colonial cookbook was published by William Parks in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1742, based on Eliza Smith’s The Compleat Housewife; or Accomplished Gentlewoman’s Companion, and it included several recipes for soups and bisques.
English cooking dominated early colonial cooking; but as new immigrants arrived from other countries, other national soups gained popularity. In particular, German immigrants living in Pennsylvania were famous for their potato soups. In 1794, Jean Baptiste Gilbert Payplat dis Julien, a refugee from the French Revolution, opened an eating establishment in Massachusetts called The Restorator, and became known as the “Prince of Soups”.
My Family Loves Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup
My family has a tradition of eating soup and salad for lunch on Sunday’s after getting home from church. Soup is such an simple and brainless meal to serve a busy family with kids.
My dad would often make cream of tomato soup and serve a bowl with grilled cheese sandwiches and pickles. Our family also loved slurping through bowls of Butternut Squash Soup, French Onion Soup and Chicken Noodle Soup.
Some of the fondest memories of my childhood spent in Toronto, Markham, Oakville and Muskoka are cozying up to a bowl of homemade soup with gourmet crackers, artisanal cheese and sourdough bread.
During October in Ontario we’d often visit popular Fall Fairs in Norfolk County, Niagara and Prince Edward County to go on fun rides, run through corn mazes and purchase fresh local fruits and vegetables at the peak of harvest season.
Sweet potatoes and bell peppers are available in abundance year round in Canada but we especially love to serve this savoury soup in the Fall at Thanksgiving.
Where To Eat Sweet Potato Soup
If you live in a large city in North America you’ll likely have access to plenty of soup-specific restaurants. We also love to visit local, family-run diners and cafes that offer menus specializing in “soups, sandwiches and salads.”
In Toronto, popular restaurants that serve soup include RaviSoups, Soup Nutsy, United Bakers Dairy, Cafe Polonez, Saffron Spice Kitchen, Santouka Ramen, Sansotei Ramen, Kenzo Ramen, Kinton Ramen, Ajisen Ramen, Maison Selby, Pho Vistro, Pho Hung, The Golden Turtle, Maha’s, Pai, Sabai Sabai, Khao San Road, One Love Vegetarian and Fabarnak.
Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup Health Benefits
Our Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup recipe is packed full of healthy ingredients!
Onions are a humble vegetable packed with vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. Regular consumption of leeks can help boost digestive health and reduce the risk of developing heart disease.
An excellent source of vitamins A and C, sweet potatoes boost your immune system and help keep your skin healthy. They also have a very low glycemic index, providing a steady supply of energy to your body.
Bell Peppers are an incredible source of vitamins C and A, which support your skin and immune system. They also provide beneficial carotenoid compounds such as beta-carotene, which has been shown to reduce the risk of certain cancers.
Paprika is rich in vitamin A, capsaicin, and carotenoid antioxidants. These substances may help prevent inflammation and improve your cholesterol, eye health and blood sugar levels.
A rich source of phytochemicals and vitamin C, lemons help boost your immune system and neutralize free radicals that cause disease and skin aging. Lemons also protect against heart disease and help improve blood flow to the brain.
Packed with calcium and friendly probiotic bacteria, sour cream and yogurt help keep your bones strong and your gut healthy. Yogurt may also help reduce the risk of obesity, diabetes and some types of cancer.
Rich in monounsaturated fats and potassium, pistachios help reduce levels of bad cholesterol and reduce high blood pressure. The copper in pistachios supports healthy bones and blood, while antioxidant phytochemicals protect your eye health.
Red Pepper Soup Tips
This healthy homemade soup is quick and easy to make at home. We’ve included a few tips for first time soup makers!
- Use a large cast iron dutch oven with a high rim to reduce splatter when cooking and pureeing the vegetables.
- In our recipe below we suggest using an immersion blender to puree the cooked vegetables but you could also use a heavy duty Vitamix.
- We suggest using a high quality rubber spatula spoon when making soup so you can easily stir, scrape down the side of the pot and sip to check if it needs to be seasoned further with more salt before spooning into bowls.
- We’ve used garlic, paprika and lemon to flavour this soup. You could substitute with ginger, curry powder, spicy chili and lime juice.
- If you use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock this soup recipe is suitable for vegetarians.
- Our Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup recipe features butter and yogurt or sour cream but you can make it vegan by substituting for coconut oil and thick coconut cream. If you’re going with flavours from Thailand why not add a few dashes of fish sauce and a scoop of curry paste?
What To Serve with Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup
There’s nothing more comforting on a cold day then cozying up to a bowl of soup with a fresh salad, gourmet crackers, artisanal cheeses, sourdough bread, savoury muffins and homemade pickles.
If you’re hosting a large dinner party you might want to serve our healthy Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup as an appetizer before serving heartier mains. We love serving this soup with Osaka Okonomayaki, Calgary Ginger Beef, Keto Jalapeno Poppers, Instant Pot Short Rib Ragu, Cheesy Polenta, Vegetarian Roti Canai Curry, Gruyere Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Old School Cheese and Onion Pie, Green Onion Cake, Baked Mediterranean Chicken Thighs, Baked Chicken Cracklings, Homemade Savoury Pickle Pie, Indian Crepes, Vietnamese Crepe Bánh Xèo, Tartiflette Reblochon or Ricotta Gnocchi.
After dinner why not dazzle your guests with one of our popular desserts such as Oat Flour Cookies with Chocolate Chips, Dark Chocolate Lindt Lindor Cookies, Maraschino Cherry Cupcakes Recipe or Cinnamon Babka For Chocolate Lovers.
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Storing Soup
If you have leftover Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup you can store it in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week. To reheat simply zap it in the microwave or simmer in a small saucepan on the stove.
We love doubling soup recipes so we can store leftovers in the freezer and save time on cooking in the kitchen. We suggest storing leftover soup in Pyrex freezer safe containers that have a snug lid so there’s no spilling. My mother often uses old glass pasta sauce jars to store soup in the freezer.
Be sure to let your soup reach room temperature before storing it in the freezer. If you add a hot jar of soup to a cold freezer it will significantly reduce the interior temperature and potentially spoil your food.
How To Make Healthy Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup
Healthy Roasted Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup
Equipment
- oven
- Immersion Blender
- measuring spoons
- measuring cups
- French knife
- baking sheet
- Dutch Oven
Ingredients
- 2 Red Bell Pepper
- 1 tbsp Canola Oil
- 2 Small Spanish Onions chopped
- 2 Garlic Cloves minced
- 1 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 2 Sweet Potatoes peeled and chopped
- 3 cups Chicken Stock
- 1 tbsp Fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- Red Pepper Flakes crushed
- Scallions or Chives sliced
- Sour Cream or Greek Yogurt
- Roasted Pistachio
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450F.
- Arrange bell peppers on a parchment lined baking sheet. Roast for 40 minutes, or until the skins are wrinkled and charred. Remove the peppers from the oven and allow to cool, approximately 20-30 minutes.
- Remove the stems, skins, and seeds from the peppers; chop the peppers roughly and set them aside.
- Heat the oil in a large dutch oven over medium high heat. Add onion. Cook, stirring frequently, for 5-6 minutes, or until the onion has softened. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
- Add the sweet potato, broth, smoked paprika and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20-22 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes have softened.
- Add roasted red peppers to the pot. Use an immersion blender to blend the soup until it's smooth. Transfer the soup back to the pot and stir over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. If the soup is thicker than you'd like, add extra stock to thin it out.
- Add the lemon juice and serve in large soup bowls topped with crushed red pepper flakes, sliced scallions, pistachio and dollop of sour cream or greek yogurt.
Nutrition
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