Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup with Crème Fraiche

Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup garnished with Creme Fraiche and Crisp Prosciutto

I made this Sunday night in a flurry of inspiration and a desire to use up some things in pantry. This is quite a simple soup recipe with not too much chopping and everything went into one pot. The chipolte chile pepper made this soup pretty spicy which my husband loved.  Adding some creme fraiche to the pureed soup mellowed the spiciness slightly but it was still damn hot.  If you like things a bit milder, you could use half a chili pepper and still get the smokey heat that chipotle gives.

If you aren’t familiar with chipotle chile peppers in adobo sauce, they are smoked jalapeno peppers in a vinegary tomato sauce. Unless you are a heat junkie, you are not likely to use up a whole can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce before some (or most) go off in you fridge. What I do, is get a cookie sheet and line it with plastic wrap. I set the individual peppers out on the plastic wrap and put the cookie sheet in the freezer. When the peppers are frozen, I put them all in a small freezer bag so I can just take one out at a time. There is no need to thaw them before using them since it is actually easier to chop them while they are still frozen.

If you can’t find creme fraiche, feel free to use use sour cream. I recommend going with the full fat sour cream because it will blend better with the soup. You can also use a couple slice of bacon crumbled over top instead of the prosciutto or omit it all together if you want to go vegetarian with this.

I really liked how simple this soup was to put together. I may play with this a bit since it will definitely be one of my standard soup recipes that gets made often in my house. Next time I may add a bit of lime juice and zest.  Yum! This time though, the heat, sweetness from the sweet potatoes, creaminess from the creme fraiche and crisp prosciutto is flavour enough.

Ingredients

4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium or large onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 (or a half) chipotle chile in adobo sauce, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of pepper
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup creme fraiche or sour cream, plus more for garnish
4 slices of proscuitto

How-to

Chop the onions and garlic and begin heating oil over a medium heat in a large heavy bottom pot. Start frying the onions and then add the garlic after a minute or two. Meanwhile, peel the sweet potatoes and very roughly chop. When the onions and garlic begin to get a bit of colour on them add the sweet potatoes, salt, pepper and chicken broth. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are very soft. Remove from heat while you puree with a hand-held stick blender or use a regular blender. If using a regular blender, puree in batches and make sure you remove the centre portion of the lid and cover with a tea towel, otherwise you will be scalded with the soup as it explodes all over your kitchen. As the soup simmers (before blending), place the prosciutto on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper and bake at 400 degrees F for 10-12 minutes, turning once halfway through. When the prosciutto is crisp, remove from oven and set aside to cool. After pureeing the soup, add the 1/2 cup of creme fraiche and return to a gentle heat. Stir to fully incorporate the creme fraiche.  Crumble the prosciutto and set it aside until you are ready to serve. Ladle the soup into a bowl and top with a dollop of creme fraiche and some of the crumbled prosciutto.