Bobby Flay Sweet Potato Soup is a fall dinner made with mashed sweet potatoes, chipotle and creme fraiche, ready in 1 hour 25 minutes. The pot serves four to six. Crushed blue corn tortilla chips and cilantro finish each bowl.
Flay built this for Dear Food Network in an episode about Turkey Day leftovers, so it starts from mashed sweet potatoes rather than raw. Three cups of yesterday’s mash go straight into the pot with broth and spice. That is why a soup this rich needs no blender.
The half cup of creme fraiche splits in two, and that split is the whole trick. Half whisks into the pot to soften the chipotle, while the other half gets mixed with more chipotle for the dollop on top. Stir the dollop in and you lose the contrast completely.
Bobby Flay Sweet Potato Soup
Course: SoupCuisine: SouthwesternDifficulty: Medium4
servings30
minutes40
minutes300
kcalA ricer is what gets the mash smooth enough to whisk into a soup, and the potatoes have to go through it hot. Maple syrup and honey both go in, two tablespoons each, alongside a full teaspoon of cinnamon.
Ingredients
- For the Sweet Potato Soup:
3 cups leftover mashed sweet potatoes (below)
1 1/2 to 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup creme fraiche, divided
2 teaspoons chipotle in adobo puree
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- For the Mashed Sweet Potatoes:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon chipotle chile puree
5 large sweet potatoes, boiled until just cooked through and peeled
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- For Garnish:
Fresh cilantro leaves
Blue corn tortilla chips, coarsely crushed
Directions
- Warm the dairy for the mash: Combine the butter, milk, cream and chipotle puree in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer.
- Rice the potatoes: While the potatoes are hot, run them through a ricer into a large bowl. Add the warm milk mixture, maple syrup, honey, cinnamon and salt and pepper, and mix until combined.
- Build the soup: Whisk together 3 cups of the mashed potatoes, 1 1/2 cups of the broth, the ginger, allspice and nutmeg in a medium saucepan, and bring to a simmer over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
- Enrich and loosen: Whisk in 1/4 cup of the creme fraiche and more broth if needed, then cook for 5 minutes.
- Make the dollop and serve: Whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup creme fraiche and the chipotle puree in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with a dollop of the creme fraiche, cilantro leaves and crushed tortilla chips.
Food Network lists this as Intermediate with a yield of 4 to 6; the card uses the lower end. No nutrition panel is published, so the calorie figure is estimated from the ingredients.
Most of the work here happens before the soup pot comes out.
FAQs
Can I use canned sweet potato or store-bought mash?
Yes, though canned sweet potato puree is thinner and plainer than this mash, so add butter and a pinch of cinnamon. Three cups is the target either way. Skip the maple and honey if your mash is already sweetened, because the soup turns cloying fast.
The mash recipe makes way more than three cups. Is that right?
Five large sweet potatoes yield roughly seven cups of mash, while the soup only takes three. The sub-recipe is a full Thanksgiving side that happens to be printed here, not a scaled portion. Halve it if you are making the mash purely for soup.
No ricer in the drawer. What now?
A food mill gives the same fine texture, and a box grater’s largest holes work in a pinch on hot potatoes. Avoid a food processor, since the blades turn sweet potato gluey within seconds. A hand masher leaves lumps that will not whisk out later.
How hot does the chipotle make it?
Start with half the chipotle and taste, because adobo puree varies wildly between brands. A tablespoon in the mash plus two teaspoons in the garnish reads as warm and smoky rather than hot. Blend a whole can of chipotles in adobo to make your own puree, and freeze it in a tray.
Why blue corn chips specifically?
Crushing blue corn chips over an orange soup is mostly about the color break, though they are also nuttier and sturdier than yellow. Regular tortilla chips taste fine and go soft slightly faster. For another way to use up holiday sweet potatoes, this butternut and sweet potato hash takes twenty minutes.
Can I make this dairy free?
Swap the creme fraiche for full fat coconut cream, and the milk and cream in the mash for coconut milk. The result is sweeter and reads more Caribbean than Southwestern, which some people prefer. Serve it before something substantial like this roasted root vegetable tarte tatin.
