I borrowed a bunch of Jamie Oliver books at the library, and am currently reading the Jamie’s Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals and it’s a winner for sure.
The book is full of simple rustic recipes. I found so many ideas and inspirations!
I decided my first recipe from the book would be the Sweet Potato & Chorizo Soup (pg 131). It was suggested by Jamie and others online that butternut squash is a good replacement for the sweet potato, so that is what I used instead.
The soup was very tasty, and paired with some fresh homemade whole wheat bread with butter or melted cheese, you got yourself a complete dinner!
It’s difficult to photograph this soup and make it look visual appealing, but I did my best. As you can see, I left it chunky. I was too lazy to get out the blender/food processor, so I hand mashed it with a potato masher.
From Jamie’s Food Revolution cookbook:
Sweet Potato and Chorizo Soup
Serves 6-8, you can easily adjust this recipe to make more or less servings. I used a small butternut squash and 2 small carrots with about 3 cups of broth, and it served 2 of us, with one leftover serving for lunch the next day.
Ingredients:
- 2 carrots
- 2 celery stalks
- 2 medium onions
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1.75 lbs sweet potato or butternut squash
- 7 oz of Chorizo Sausage
- Small bunch of fresh parsley
- 1.75 (7 cups) quarts of chicken or vegetable stock
- Olive oil
- 1 tsp (heaping) curry powder
- sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
- fresh red chilies for topping (I omitted)
Cooking Instructions: ( See below for my personal notes and alterations)
- Chop carrots, celery, onions, garlic, sweet potatoes (or butternut squash), fresh parsley and chorizo sausage and mix all ingredients into a large saucepan. Mix in 2 tbsp of olive oil and the curry powder.
- Put the broth in a 2nd saucepan and heat until boiling
- Cook vegetables (on high) with the lid askew, for approximately 10 minutes or until carrots have softened but are still holding their shape, and the onion is lightly golden.
- Pour boiling broth into the 1st pot with vegetables and sausage and stir well
- Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until sweet potato (or butternut squash) is cooked through
- Season with salt and pepper
- Using an immersion blender, pulse the soup until smooth and top with a little bit of finely chopped chile
- Enjoy!
My Extra Notes:
- I keep a freezer bag of fresh parsley in the freezer. When I need some, I just break off a piece and chop it up. It works fabulously!
- When I went shopping that afternoon, I couldn’t find many options for chorizo at the local Market Basket grocery, so I settled for Chipotle Chorizo chicken sausage from Al Fresco. I used to buy this brand of sausages before I became a more strict, clean eater, and they are not too bad. I will have to check at Whole Foods for better Chorizo options. I think the soup would also work using other precooked sausages or even uncured natural pepperoni or bacon.
- I don’t keep curry powder on hand, so I used a few shakes of Penzy’s Arizona Dreaming spice instead. It added mild heat.
- I didn’t have any celery on hand either.
- I heated the veggies on medium flame, not high as suggested in the recipe, and it took about 20 minutes for the carrots to soften. I mixed often.
- I didn’t boil the broth ahead of time (wasting another pot), I just poured it from the carton, over the ingredients.
- Unfortunately I don’t have an immersion blender, and I was too lazy (and hungry) to dig out the food processor or blender, so I mashed the soup by hand with a potato masher. It was still chunky, but it all tastes the same, so whatevah! haha.
- I might add a speck of fresh chopped chili peppers next time, as instructed in the recipe, but this time, I wasn’t sure how spicy hot the soup was, so I omitted the chilies.
I highly recommend Jamie Oliver’s book “Jamie’s Food Revolution” especially for newbie home cooks. It’s a back-to-basics rustic no fuss cookbook!