sweet potato and chickpea soup

Sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes are everywhere! This is a country brimming with sweet potatoes. And you know, when you’re in a place that has an abundance of something, how you never really get around to enjoying the full experience of being totally immersed in that something, until you leave and look back and go, “Wow, what an opportunity wasted!” So, in light of this truth I have decided that I will not waste being in a country where sweet potato is so readily available. I really love sweet potato, I grew up on the stuff, I missed the stuff when I was back in Australia, where it is so incredibly expensive and now I will eat it and relish the experience.

Well, maybe that was a little over the top but I am sure you know exactly what I mean. I grew up in Indonesia and the amount of times we’d go out to this gorgeous Indonesian restaurant, with amazing food and my friends would scour the menu for hamburgers. Hello!!

So, know that you know what I am neurotic about, lets talk about this mouth-watering soup. Found in DH mag issue 51, page 115 with a gorgeous photo, this soup is simple, speedy and splendiferous. I am hoping that my new issue of DH mag is coming on the plane this afternoon, on the mail/vegie run. I was hoping for it last week, but alas it did not arrive, so I’ll not hold my breath but will wait in cautious anticipation.

Anyway back to the soup. What you will need is: sweet potatoes, of course, garlic cloves, I didn’t have any of these, I used crushed garlic instead and it seemed to work just fine; onions, ground cumin and olive oil, which, of course I used canola oil. Mix all these ingredients together. Oh, by the way the sweet potato does need to be peeled and chopped. Plonk it all on an oven tray and into the oven until cooked. Than in a large saucepan add chicken stock, water and chickpeas along with your baked sweet potato, whiz it all up until it is smooth, put it back on the stove (try not to get eaten by gecko’s while typing on the computer) add some more chickpeas and serve with yoghurt and coriander.

So there you have it. So easy, so fast, so scrumptious, and I even have my own photo to put with the post, though not, of course as beautiful as the one in the mag.