Perhaps the secret to this recipe's success is pureeing roasted sweet potatoes or butternut squash into chicken broth to create the soup's thick base. No heavy cream or buttery roux needed. This recipe makes much soup, but you can cut it down easily. Even better, freeze a pint or two to re-heat on another dreary day. There is always more than one of those each winter.
Ingredients
Oven Roasting
2 large sweet potatoes or 1 whole butternut squash ( If using the easier-to-handle, pre-peeled squash, buy two halves)
olive oil
kosher salt
Aromatics
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
1 red bell pepper
1 teaspoon oregano or cumin or thyme
2 cloves garlic
6 cups chicken broth (canned is fine) - may need a bit more or less, so have about 4 cans on hand
roasted chicken (rotisserie chicken or 2 baked chicken breast)
Thai rice stick noodles
Pulling It All Together
Oven Roasting
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Peel and roughly chop your sweet potatoes or butternut squash into 1 inch cubes. Place on baking sheets covered with tin foil and sprayed with PAM. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch or two of kosher salt. Toss gently to cover all pieces with olive oil and salt. Roast for about 30 minutes. Take a peek every 10 minutes or so, using spatula to move & flip pieces a bit to brown evenly. When the sweet potatoes/squash are nicely carmelized, remove from oven and set aside.
Aromatics
While roasting is taking place, dice the peeled carrots, celery, and red pepper. Place all in large soup pot with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Set heat to medium, cover with lid, and start "sweating" veggies to release their flavors (this is where the term aromatics comes from). Also add your seasoning. Recently, we used 1 teaspoon of dried oregano and about 1/2 teaspoon cumin, but be creative and add whatever you like. After about 7 or 8 minutes of sweating veggies, add 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic, re-cover pot, and sweat for an additional minute or two.
Broth
Pour about 6 cups of chicken broth over softened veggies. Also add your roasted sweet potatoes or butternut squash. Stir and bring to a boil. Then simmer gently (uncovered) for 5 minutes. Turn off heat and use an immersion blender* to puree. As you puree these larger pieces, the soup will begin to thicken. You will also puree some of the aromatics and that's ok. You can make this soup as thick as you want by pureeing more or less. We like to leave some veggies whole to add texture to the soup. You can also add more chicken broth to thin or simmer soup uncovered to reduce and thicken.
Finishing
You can stop here & enjoy. However, we usually throw in some shredded, cooked chicken. A small rotisserie chicken works perfectly or bake two chicken breasts (skin on and bones-in) in advance. Give soup another few minutes of heat to allow the chicken to warm completely. Another idea is to add some very skinny rice stick noodles (available in Asian food section). Smash them up a bit to shorten and make easier to eat, then cook another 10 minutes so noodles soften.
Taste and add kosher salt and black pepper as needed.
* If you don't have an immersion blender, you can place the oven roasted sweet potato or squash in a blender or food processor with a bit of broth. Then pour pureed mix back into soup pot.
