Roasted Sweet Potato and Apple Soup

This velvety soup is the best guilt-free pleasure I know. Packed with sweet potatoes (a super food!) and apples (to keep the doctor away), it's a snap to make and is forgiving of whatever holiday excesses you're wanting to undo.

I make it many different ways depending on what I have in the house (sweet potatoes, butternut squash, potatoes, apples past their prime), but it never contains any cream or milk. I usually dose it with cayenne pepper, though you could skip that and top it with some sizzling almonds or toasted pistachios. If you have a lot of apples to use, add a teaspoon of apple cider or balsamic vinegar to balance the sweetness.

This batch had a 1:1 ratio of apples to sweet potatoes by volume because I had quite a few apples past their eating prime, making this soup the ideal hiding place.

I'm fortunate to have a VitaMix to blend it all up in, but you can just as easily use an immersion blender. If you use your blender or food processor, blend it in batches, and add extra liquid if you hear the engine straining.

You can swap out the chicken broth for vegetable broth, water or apple juice. If you go with apple juice, add at least one teaspoon of cider or balsamic vinegar to taste. If you don't like things spicy, leave out the cayenne. You can also replace the cayenne with 1 teaspoon curry powder, or use both.

Roasted Sweet Potato and Apple Soup
Printer-friendly recipe

Olive oil
2 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes (or butternut squash), peeled and cubed
2 large or 4 small apples (or Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes), cubed (peel potatoes if using)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste (optional)
6 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon apple cider or balsamic vinegar (or to taste), optional
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450 F. Lightly oil two sheet pans or baking sheets. Add the cubed sweet potato and drizzle on another tablespoon or so of olive oil. Using your hands, make sure all of the sweet potatoes are coated lightly with the oil. Season with salt and pepper. Place pans in oven and roast sweet potatoes for about 15 minutes, or until edges are getting brown and larger cubes are tender when pierced with the end of a sharp knife. Remove from oven and set aside to cool before proceeding.

If using a blender or food processor, add 1/4 of the apple, 1/4 of the sweet potatoes, 1 1/2 cups of broth, 1/4 of the cayenne and 1/4 of the vinegar to the container and process according to manufacturer's instructions. Pour into a 4 quart saucepan or Dutch oven, and add another batch of the ingredients to the container and process. Repeat for remaining ingredients.

If using an immersion blender, place ingredients in a 4 quart saucepan or Dutch oven and using immersion blender, puree ingredients until desired consistency.

Place saucepan over medium heat and heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through.