Sweet Potato-Corn Chowder with Avocado

At my final Powisset Farm CSA share pick up this year, we got a boat load of white yams (bottom of picture) and a few orange-flesh sweet potatoes (not pictured). I was going to just bake them, as we love roasted sweet potatoes (both whole and chopped)… but it was a ‘soup kind of day’ a couple of weekends ago, so I decided to try a new soup recipe.

I have a great cookbook (put out by Williams Sonoma) called Soup of the Day — 365 Recipes for Every Day of the Year. I perused the pages of Sept, Oct and Nov and came across this great recipe. As you know, I rarely follow recipes… but rather, take inspiration from the original ingredient list and personalize it to my tastes. However, with this recipe, I almost followed it exactly. Almost. 😉

Sweet Potato-Corn Chowder with Avocado

2 tbsp olive oil
1 small white onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used 4)
2 tsp ground cumin (I used a bit more)
1/2 tsp ground coriander (I used about 3x this amount)
Salt and fresh ground pepper (to taste)
2 sweet potatoes (about 1.5 lbs), peeled and diced (I used a lot more…I had 4 white yams and 2 orange sweet potatoes)
3 cups (24oz) vegetable or chicken broth (Since I had more potatoes, I used 32 oz of organic, free range chicken broth. You could also use my homemade version, which would be delicious.)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and finely diced
8 ears of fresh corn, husked, silk removed and kernels cut from cob (about 1 lb total if using frozen)*
2 tbsp minced fresh cilantro
1 ripe avocado, pitted, peeled and diced
1/2 c sour cream (optional)

*I like to use fresh corn… here is a super easy way to cook and peel your corn, using the microwave! For this recipe, I only had 4 fresh ears… as it was the tail end of the season. So my version was lighter on the corn, but just as good though!

In a large, heavy pot, warm the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until translucent, about 5 mins. Add the cumin, coriander and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for 1 minute. Add the sweet potatoes, stir to coat and cook for 3 minutes.

Add the broth, bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Simmer until the sweet potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. I like to taste the soup as I go, to see if the seasoning is right for me. When I tasted it at this point, I realized I wanted more cumin, coriander and a bit more salt.

Add the red pepper and corn and cook until the vegetables are tender, 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool slightly.

Purée half the soup in a blender (I used my hand-held immersion blender, b/c it was much easier). Return to the pot. Stir in the cilantro and season with more salt and pepper if necessary. Serve, garnished with the avocado and sour cream, if desired.

Unfortunately, when I was making it, I didn’t think to take any pics until the very end… so I apologize for the lack of instructional photos this time. It’s pretty straight forward though and this was the final result…

It was hearty, filling, had a nice seasoning to it and overall a family hit. A definite keeper that we will be making again!

Enjoy!