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Embrace the warmth of the colder months with this incredibly comforting sweet potato soup. Dive into a blend of cinnamon, apple, and clove flavours that will transport you to a cosy haven.
This soup is a perfect addition to your festive menu, adding a touch of elegance and sophistication. For an extra touch of indulgence, accompany it with homemade gluten-free pecan pastry twirls on the side.
The best part? This soup is naturally sweet, thanks to the sweet potato and apples. No added sugar here! The natural sweetness, combined with the aromatic notes of cinnamon and cloves, creates a harmonious balance of flavours. A comforting bowl of sweetness and spice!
About the Pecan Twirls:
This is a flaky pastry that has been slightly modified from my Cheese Crackers recipe to give you puffy and buttery sticks. The flavour comes from a topping of crushed pecans, fresh sage, pepper & salt.
A tip to note is to not make the sticks any longer than 15 cm otherwise they will snap easily. Being gluten-free, a little extra xanthan gum is added to the pastry to make them sturdier. If you are not able to buy xanthan gum, but have some in your flour mixture, they should be sturdy enough, otherwise convert the twirls into small biscuits. They’ll still taste the same!
Bread suggestions to serve with this soup:
Prefer having a warm bread roll or slice to butter and serve with this soup, get baking with these suggestions:
Add some corn muffins to the bread basket!
FUN FACT
Did you know that the sweet potato is not actually a potato? It may be mistaken for one, but it’s not even a distant cousin. Potatoes are tubers, while sweet potatoes are roots.
Sweet Potato Soup with Pecan Twirls
Equipment
- Large Casserole Pot with Lid for soup
- Food processor for blending soup
- Stand mixer for pecan twirls
Ingredients
SWEET POTATO SOUP
- 400 g sweet potato, peeled and chopped coarsely
- 200 g potatoes, peeled and chopped coarsely
- 2 spring onions, white part only, chopped coarsely
- 1 red apple, peeled and cored, cut in half
- 8 whole cloves, to stud the apple
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 whole cinnamon stick
- 1 litre store-bought or homemade chicken stock, or vegetable stock
- 1 bay leaf
- white pepper & salt, to season
- crème fraiche or plain yoghurt, to garnish
- 8 fresh sage leaves, to garnish
PECAN TWIRLS
Gluten-Free Pastry
- 100 g store-bought or homemade gluten-free plain flour
- 90 g cold butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 2 tsp gluten-free baking powder
- ¾ tsp sea salt
- 40-50 ml iced cold water
- 2 drops of lemon juice
TwirlToppings
- 30 g pecans, chopped roughly
- 10 medium fresh sage leaves, chopped finely
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ tsp sea salt
Egg Wash
- ½ egg yolk
- ½ tsp water
Instructions
SWEET POTATO SOUP
- Chop the sweet potatoes, potatoes & spring onions coarsely. Stud the peeled & cored halved apple with the whole cloves.
- Melt the butter in a deep pot over medium heat and add the prepared vegetables and apple to the pot. Fry and stir occasionally for 5 mins with the lid on.
- Add the whole cinnamon stick and fry until it releases its aroma.
- Pour the stock and bay leaf into the pot and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and cover to simmer for 30 mins.
- Season the soup and taste. Season more if needed.
- Remove the cinnamon stick, bay leaves and the cloves from the apple.
- Using either a stick blender or a stand blender, puree the soup until smooth. Allow the soup to cool down slightly before blending and take care not to get splashed.
- If you prefer your soup chunkier, use a potato masher for a coarser consistency.
Serving
- Ladle the soup into warm bowls and add a small dollop of either crème fraiche or plain yoghurt.
- Add a couple of fresh or fried sage leaves to the dollop.
- Serve the pecan twirls (recipe below) across the soup bowls or next to the soup on a plate or container.
PECAN TWIRLS
Preparing the pastry
- Freeze the butter cubes for 10 mins.
- Sift the gluten-free plain flour, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl.
- Quickly rub in the cold butter pieces using the tip of your fingers, two knives or a paddle attachment if using a stand mixer, until most of the butter has blended into the flour. Don't worry if you can see specks or streaks of butter in the dough, this is a good sign that it hasn't been over-mixed.
- Add the cold water and lemon juice gradually, mixing well with a wooden spoon or the paddle attachment on the stand mixer.
- As soon as the dough comes together, stop mixing and cover it with plastic film. Chill the dough for 20 mins.
Rolling out & topping the pastry
- Roll out the pastry to ½ cm thick between a sheet of baking paper at the base and plastic film over the top, to prevent the pastry from sticking.
- Using a large knife, trim away the rough edges to create either a square or an oblong pastry sheet. Keep the excess pastry aside to reuse later.
- Prepare the pecans and sage and measure the seasoning.
- Scatter the pecan and sage on top of the pastry sheet, followed by the black pepper and salt.
- Cover the topped pastry sheet with the plastic film and press down the toppings into the pastry with the rolling pin
- Remove the pastry film and cut long 12-15 cm strips, 2 cm apart.
- Using a knife or a spatula, carefully transfer each pastry strip to a lined baking tray.
- Without lifting the pastry too high from the baking tray, twist the pastry strip into twirls.
- Mix the egg yolk and water to create an eggwash and brush each twirl with the wash on the non-topped sections.
- Remember to use the excess pastry to roll out more twirls.
Baking
- Preheat the oven temperature to 230°C/450°F.
- Bake the crackers in the oven for 12 minutes.
- Allow to cool down slightly before serving with the soup.
Notes
Sweet Potato Soup
- Keeps for 3 days chilled
- Suitable to freeze
Pecan Twirls
- Keeps for 2 days but is best eaten on the same day as baking.
- Stores well in a metal biscuit tin, but should you want to crisp them up again, reheat the crackers briefly in an air fryer or oven.
- Suitable to freeze but refresh them as mentioned above.
