Sweet potato and beer soup
- Preparation 25 min
- Cooking 50 min
- Servings 4 to 6
- Freezing Absolutely
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🍲 A creamy soup with no cream in it
There is a point, somewhere in late September, where I stop wanting salad. Soup comes back on its own. This one is thick and velvety without a drop of cream: the sweet potato breaks down in the broth and does the work for me. One pot, a bit of patience, and supper is handled for two nights. If that kind of big comforting bowl is your thing, my carrot soup with ginger works the exact same way.
🍐 The Asian pear is where this one gets interesting
I wanted to do something different. Not a fruit that sweetens things further, a fruit that refreshes. An Asian pear does that: crisp, juicy, almost thirst-quenching, and once it goes through the blender with everything else it leaves a fine tartness that cuts straight through the sugar of the sweet potato. It adds something incredible. I mean that.
Nobody puts that in a sweet potato soup. That is part of why I did. I had already tried pear against a root vegetable in my parsnip and pear soup, so I knew it would hold up.
🍛 Curry and ginger wake the sweet potato up
A sweet potato on its own slides toward dessert fast. Sweet on sweet, and you are done by the third bowl. Mild curry and fresh ginger bring the opposite: warmth, a small prickle, a quiet bitterness underneath. The strong golden ale I pour in when the vegetables get wet pulls the two sides back together with its malt. And the crispy maple bacon on top is not decoration.
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🌀 Countertop blender first, always
The question comes up every single time a soup goes up here, so let me settle it: if you own a countertop blender, use the countertop blender. That is what gives the silky texture, the one that stays smooth even after the bowl cools down. Work in two or three batches, fill the jar two thirds at most, pull the cap out of the lid and drape a towel over the hole. Boiling soup in a sealed jar is how a lid ends up on the ceiling.
The immersion blender is my second choice, not my first. Faster, one pot to wash instead of two, but it always leaves a bit of grain you can feel on your tongue. If that is what you have, tilt the pot and work small zones instead of waving it around.
🍐 No Asian pear?
A regular pear does the job. Ripe, it sweetens a little more and crunches a little less, but the idea holds.
🥓 Cook the maple bacon the day before
I lay it flat on a sheet pan and bake it until it is properly crisp, then let it cool on paper towel. It keeps two or three days in a sealed container on the counter and stays crunchy. Chop it right before serving. Same goes for my bread croutons: made ahead, they are better.
🍺 Which beer to pour in
A strong golden ale, tripel style. It brings malt and spice notes that follow the curry instead of fighting it. Stay away from very bitter IPAs: bitterness concentrates as the soup simmers and the bowl turns astringent. I cook with beer a lot, like in my cheese and beer soup with Don de Dieu.
📅 Make it ahead
Yes, and it is better the next day. Take the soup all the way through the blending step, then let it sit up to four days in the fridge. It thickens as it cools, which is normal. Reheat gently, loosen it with a splash of hot broth and it is right back where it started. Garnishes are made separately and go on at the last second.
❄️ Freeze it without the garnish
The soup freezes beautifully. The bacon and croutons do not. They go soft and you end up with soggy bread floating in your bowl. Freeze the base alone, in portions, and rebuild the topping the day you serve it.
✅ What to serve with my sweet potato and beer soup
It is a full meal as is. A baguette, a piece of cheese, and there is nothing left to add. I pull out my bread baguettes with olives, fresh herbs and beer when I have the time, otherwise a good store baguette and a chunk of sharp cheddar carry the evening. If you have people over and want to stretch things out, my potato leek soup and this one work well side by side in small cups.
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Ingredients
- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
- Olive oil
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) grated fresh ginger
- 4 sweet potatoes (about 8 cups/2 L), peeled and cubed
- 1 Asian pear, cut into cubes
- 1 1/2 tablespoons (22.5 ml) mild curry powder
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) dried oregano
- 2 cups (500 ml) strong golden ale, tripel style
- 2 to 3 cups (500 to 750 ml) chicken broth, hot
- Bread croutons
- 8 slices crispy cooked maple bacon, roughly chopped
- Fresh chives, chopped
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Preparation
- In a large pot heated over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, then drizzle with olive oil. Mix and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring.
- Add the ginger, mix and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the sweet potatoes, Asian pear, curry and oregano, season with salt and pepper and stir to combine. Cook for 7 to 8 minutes to caramelize everything.
- Add the beer and pour in enough chicken broth to cover the vegetables.
- Cover, bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 30 to 35 minutes or until the vegetables are tender with a fork.
- Blend and adjust the texture by adding chicken broth to taste. Top with croutons, maple bacon and garnish with chives!
Not much, and that is the beauty of it. Sweet potatoes, an onion, garlic, fresh ginger, curry powder, a decent broth, and something tart so the bowl does not taste like dessert. In my version that tart thing is an Asian pear, and the liquid is part beer, part chicken broth. A blender, a big pot and a sharp knife cover the equipment. No cream, no thickener, no stock cubes.
Undercooking the sweet potatoes is the big one. If a fork meets resistance, the blender hands you grit. Second, reaching for a hot curry powder, which flattens everything around it. Third, filling the blender jar to the top with boiling soup and locking the lid down, which is how kitchen ceilings get painted orange. Fourth, adding maple syrup or brown sugar. The vegetable is already sweet enough on its own.
Anything that pushes back. Salt and acid mostly, plus a bit of heat. Smoky bacon, sharp cheddar, lime juice, chorizo, roasted garlic, coconut milk, peanuts, cilantro. Curry and ginger do the heavy lifting here, and the pear brings a clean tartness you almost never get in a sweet potato soup. Cinnamon and nutmeg work too, but they drag the whole bowl toward pie.
You can, but it is my second choice. A countertop blender gives a silkier result and it holds that texture once the soup cools. If you go the immersion route, tilt the pot, work small zones, and give it longer than you think it needs.
Yes, up to three months, but freeze the base only. Croutons and bacon go soft, so keep them for the day you serve. Thaw overnight in the fridge, reheat gently and loosen with a splash of hot broth.
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