A cozy warm night in a bowl with a stunning purple hue that’s as beautiful as it is delicious. Roasted purple sweet potatoes are blended together with spices for a savory soup that's equal parts nourishing and comforting.

Also called purple yams, I never called sweet potatoes yams, though it had nothing to do with the fact that sweet potatoes are not actually yams, but more because of an unconscious preference to call them sweet potatoes.

The story behind sweet potatoes being called yams is unclear to me because I have not found one consistent story. The most common story I’ve found is that African slaves in colonial times noted some similarities and called them yams using their native language, and it spread from there.  This causes confusion because  yams are not sweet potatoes, and sweet potatoes are not yams. Real yams are drier and starchier than sweet potatoes with rougher bark-like skin, while sweet potatoes have smoother skin and are more moist. So essentially, sweet potatoes have been made to be impostors perpetrated  in the US, as yams, as a marketing ploy.  Is this a conspiracy, purposely marketing sweet potatoes as yams with the intent to deceive the people? Likely not, though I can not say for sure. It was likely like with everything else, marketed with a specific outcome in mind for the time and culture of the people being marketed to.

All jokes aside, I’ve not seen real yams at the grocery store, though if I were looking for them, the first place I would go is Jungle Jims. For those outside the Cincinnati Area, Jungle Jims is an international grocery store with food from all over the world.

Purple sweet potatoes can be hard to find. I don’t often see them in regular grocery stores; however, when I do, I am sure to pick up a couple if I have an adventurous recipe I want to create. To find them where you are, you can either check Frieda’s Stokes website or, if you’re local, go check out Jungle Jims.

I picked these sweet potatoes not only for their bold color that definitely makes a statement, saying I’m here and I’m purple! But also, these brightly colored potatoes actually have a subtler sweet flavor when cooked than do the orange variety of sweet potatoes, making them a good option for making a savory soup.  These potatoes also have good nutrition, containing a healthy dose of vitamin C, fiber, and potassium.  

You’ll have to buy fresh purple sweet potatoes, as I’ve not seen them frozen or in any other variety other than fresh. With orange sweet potatoes, I can find them in many other varieties, including frozen; They’re only available fresh and not always organic, so when I see the organic ones, I grab them even if I don’t have anything particular planned.

You can experiment with purple sweet potatoes in just the same way as the orange trying desserts, baked goods, baked, fried, sweet or savory like in soups, which is what I’m going to be making for this recipe.  

I had come around to sweet potatoes, having been primarily a pumpkin fan, and this is in the context of pie. I was not a fan of sweet potato, much preferring pumpkin, but during some health issues, I was looking for other foods I could eat and thought I would give sweet potatoes a try for other applications, and I was pleasantly surprised. So down the line, here I am making this soup.

It starts with peeling and washing the sweet potatoes, oh, and be sure to preheat your oven to 375 while you’re doing that.  Peel the potatoes; it shouldn’t take long, but you could turn on music or listen to a podcast in the background. Next, wash them, then use a knife to make slits in each sweet potato. Cover them with foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until tender.  Next up, if you don’t have a Vitamix, then you’ll have to let these potatoes cool completely. Maybe about 30 minutes. Just enough time to get a load of laundry in, go for a walk, or read a chapter of that book you’ve been trying to find time for. Next, cut these potatoes into small chunks, or you could also totally skip that step and put them straight into the blender; they’re soft enough. Place the potatoes into the blender, and blend until smooth with the water and seasonings.  Add the soup to a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 2 minutes.

Enjoy

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Ingredients 

Yield 1

3 small purple sweet potatoes

1 1/2 cups water

1 tsp braggs 24 seasonings

1/2 tsp fresh turmeric grated or 1/4 tsp dried turmeric

1/4 tsp paprika

3/4 tsp salt

Directions 

Preheat to 375

Peel and wash purple sweet potatoes. With a knife, cut some slits in the potatoes. Cover each potato with foil. Bake at 375 for 35-45 minutes, or until soft. Cool the potatoes completely. If you have a Vitamix you can skip this step and continue to the next one.

Cut up potatoes into small chunks. Add to a blender with  the water and seasonings. Add soup to a bowl and microwave for 2 minutes. Enjoy

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