Easy Sweet Potato & Kale Soup

This crazy simple soup – the epitome of “batch cooking” – was one of the first recipes I concocted as a grownup. 

Enormous containers of this stuff sustained me through grad school and many a lean winter in New York. In my 20s, I made it regularly because it was hearty, cheap and kept well (also, vegan). If you cook the sweet potatoes enough, you can crush them with a potato masher and omit all the kitchen gadgets, like I used to. 

Now that I’m deep down the culinary rabbit hole, I don’t make this soup nearly as often. But it’s always in my back pocket for big life transitions like starting a demanding new job, parenthood or a nuclear winter.

Make a big batch on a Sunday night and change your life.

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Easy Sweet Potato &
Kale Soup

INGREDIENTS

3 large, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 large white onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1 large bunch fresh curly kale, finely chopped with thick stems removed

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

Cool water

Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large saucepan, heat olive oil and sweat the onion about 5 minutes, until soft. Add garlic, thyme sprigs, salt and pepper, then stir and cover. Cook another 3 minutes.

2. Add the cubed sweet potatoes, which should fill about half the saucepan. Cover (just!) with water. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, simmering about 20 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are very tender.

3. Remove thyme stems. Transfer about ¾ of the soup mixture to a large upright blender and puree until smooth, then return the puree to the saucepan and smash remaining potato cubes with a potato masher, or the back of a spoon.  (Alternately, use an immersion blender to puree until slightly chunky, or simply go to town with a potato masher for a really “rustic” version.)

4. Slowly stir in handfuls of the chopped kale, which will wilt and shrink down as it hits the hot soup. Simmer another 5 minutes.

5. Remove from heat. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot, topped with shredded parmesan cheese if desired.