Oddly good Coconut Sweet Potato Curry Soup

Sounds like something you make when you empty out your cabinet, eh? This recipe is courtesy of the folks over at Post Punk Kitchen--if you haven't checked out their recipes, give them a gander. Good vegan food with lots of comments and suggestions, which is how I like my recipe sites.

First you bake some sweet potatoes and peel them. Cut into 1 inch (or smaller) chunks.

Meanwhile, get your broth going with some onion and ginger cooking down, add curry paste.  (Okay--here's where I made a known error.  This should probably have thai flavors, right?  Well, I'm down to the end of my Indian curry paste...so I just used that instead.  Then added some extra crushed pepper and garlic.  Probably destroyed the integrity of the dish, but this is a clean-out-your cupboard dish anyways....right?)

Add coconut milk and bring to boil, reduce and simmer for 5 minutes.

Then add the sweet potato. Hmm...it just looks too orange for me. And chunky. I don't like big chunks.

Not a problem! Broke out the ever handy food processor and reduced the chunks considerably.

For color?  Threw some spinach in a pan and wilted it to add to the soup as well. I'm like popeye when it comes to spinach.

After the excitement of pureeing and wilting, there was nothing left to do but add some lemon juice, divvy into lunch tupperware, and drizzle with the sesame oil pictured above.  Here's hoping for some good end-of-the-week lunches!

Verdict: Surprisingly good.  Spicy and sweet and sour--the lemon juice adds an unexpected twist.  I tasted it pre-lemon juice and was concerned with how "blah" it tasted--but that sourness won me over.  We'll see how it tastes tomorrow--which is the true test of blended flavors.  To truly do the recipe justice, I'll try it again with thai curry paste before making the final call on whether or not this goes into regular rotation.