Not going to lie here – winter is not my favourite season. Weeks and weeks of cloudy Cape skies and storms that threaten to tear off the new roof before I’ve finished paying for it leave me a tad blue. I turn to bread, pasta and anything fatty. At the end of three months the skinny jeans don’t fit so ‘lekker’ anymore and things that should be firm aren’t.
Not this year I’ve vowed. So I’ve been playing with low-fat veggie recipes recently, like this recipe for orange sweet potato and carrot soup. It’s fragrantly perfumed thanks to warming ginger and it has a very subtle chilli bite – deeply satisfying stuff on a rainy Cape Town day.
All you need is…
1 cup finely diced red onion
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 plump garlic cloves, finely sliced or minced
1 deseeded red chilli, chopped
1kg orange sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
6 extra large carrots (600g), peeled and sliced
2 Knorrox chicken stock cubes
1 tsp ground ginger (not fresh ginger)
¼ tsp black pepper
5 cups water (1,25L)
juice of one orange
Fry the onion over medium heat in the olive oil until soft. Add the garlic and chilli and fry for a further minute. Add the sweet potatoes, carrots, ginger and black pepper along with the water. Crumble in the chicken stock cubes. Place lid on and cook over low heat until veggies are soft. Use a stick blender to puree the soup. Stir in the orange juice. If the soup is too thick for your liking at this stage, stir in a bit of water. Taste and adjust salt as needed.
Garnish with a drizzle of coconut milk and coriander leaves and tuck in. If you really want to push the boat out flavour wise, make my intensely fragrant and super quick and easy orange gremolata as a garnish. See Tips, Tricks & Trivia lower down for how.
serves
4
prep
20 min
cook
30 min
tips, tricks and trivia
Easy herby orange gremolata
Gremolata is one of those miracle last-minute additions that just lift a meal. Traditionally it consists of parsley, garlic and lemon zest, finely chopped and mixed together. Spoon it over soup, steak, or stew and the fragrance as it hits the heat is just a knockout.
Here’s how to make an orange version to spoon over my sweet potato and carrot soup: Finely chop a handful of coriander, a handful or parsley, and a handful of mint and mix it with the finely grated zest of one orange and half a teaspoon of finely minced garlic. Done!
enjoy with
The spicy notes of this soup would pair well with an off-dry Riesling or a Viognier, both highly aromatic varieties. These varieties tend to be on the pricier side though and this is a pocket-friendly soup recipe, so I’m looking for a wine that works equally well with spicy food and comes at a great everyday price. My choice? Bon Courage Estate’s Gewürtztraminer.
On the nose it overwhelms with spice and rose petal, heady stuff indeed. On the palate it’s dry, medium-bodied and complex with spice notes and a generously lingering aftertaste. Platter gives this wine three and a half stars. Its pocket-friendly price? At time of publication it’s available online at just R70.
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