Cold Sweet Potato-Ginger Soup

I like thick soup, even during the summer. But so many cold soups are more light and brothy, and I couldn't find any recipes for a cold soup with sweet potato. Mostly my searches turned up sweet potato soup to make when you have a cold.

So I took matters into my own hands, and put this soup together.

It is a simple recipe which has the thickness of a good hardy winter soup, but is great chilled, especially with a little cream over the top.

Ingredients

• 1 lb sweet potatoes
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 in ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2-1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup water
• 1-2 tbsp cream per serving (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Cut sweet potatoes into roughly 1-in cubes. Place in bowl, add olive oil, shake to coat.
2. Spread potatoes on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake until soft and slightly brown, stirring occasionally (approx. 30-40 min).
3. Make a white sauce. Melt butter in saucepan. Slowly add flour, stirring constantly, until it forms a paste.
4. Add milk, ginger, and cumin, still stirring occasionally to keep the sauce from sticking.
5. After 2-3 minutes, add the potatoes and 1/2 cup of water.
6. Use an immersion blender, or a food processor to get soup to desired consistency. You may need to add more water at this point. I left mine fairly thick, and I used about 1 cup of water. If you want a lighter soup, add more water.
7. There was still a bit of texture after I used the immersion blender on my soup, thanks to the potato peel and the ginger that didn't get chopped up all the way. I personally like that, but it is a matter of opinion.
8. Chill soup for at least two hours. Letting it sit overnight gives the flavours even more time to combine. (Yay for leftovers, right?).
9. Serve with cream drizzled over the top, if desired. I like the depth cream gives the soup, but it's up to you. 

I like bread with my soup, and I use this recipe a lot. It's about an hour from start to finish, which means that I don't have to plan that far ahead. To go with the soup, I added 1 tsp of fresh, finely chopped ginger, and 1 tsp of turmeric.

Squashed Bananas (Or, How to Make Banana Jam)

Bananas were 29 cents a pound at Aldi the other day. I deliberately got quite a few, wanting to make some banana bread and whatnot with them. I started thinking that maybe jam would be good too. I don't really know why that sounded like a good idea. Carla used to always eat mashed bananas when we were little, and I could not stand it. Most disgusting thing ever. Mashing bananas ruined them. Though, later, when I was in Brazil, I started eating bananas mashed with powdered milk and chocolate milk powder. Still thought plain mashed bananas were gross, even then. 

But, for whatever reason, my brain said "Banana jam? Sounds amazing!" I'm glad it did. It's super easy to make, and tastes amazing. I didn't do step by step photos, but I'll give the recipe. Maybe one day I'll do step by step. But I tell you what...it gets sticky. You don't necessarily want to touch your camera, because it feels like you'll never be not sticky again. 

You of course have to start by peeling the bananas. I fed the peels to ReMe. They're one of her favourite treats, though come to find, she doesn't like them as much when they're overripe. Spoiled much?

I've also had a bit of an obsession with adding ginger to things. Something else that I've always hated. But I added it to my banana muffins, and I've been drinking hot ginger water a lot lately. I do need to figure out a good balance for adding it to recipes. I think I need to add a lot more. So I'll get working on that :~)
Also...quick bit of advice. Don't lick your fingers after grating ginger. It feels like your tongue is gonna burn off.

Here's the recipe:

1 cup mashed bananas

1 cup sugar

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Mash bananas and measure. 

Measure out everything else accordingly (4 cups bananas means

4 cups of sugar, and 4 Tbsp lemon juice).

Grate about 1/2 inch of ginger for each cup of bananas.

Dump everything together in a heavy bottomed pan and bring to a boil

over medium heat.

Boil for 5 minutes.

Seriously...Don't start counting the 5 minutes until it's really solidly boiling. It needs

that time to gel. The jam is already a thinner jam, not a jelly, and the less time you
boil, the less gelled it will be.You can boil it longer if you want, and simply keep

an eye on it to ensure that it doesn't burn.

Ladle into jars and can as you'd like. I did a hot water bath. If you choose to

do this, follow the directions that came with the jars.
Leave at least 1/4 inch of head room.

And really, if you're not making huge amounts of jam, you can just put it in a
container in the fridge. Once you taste it, it probably won't last too long.

In the cute little jars...I've discovered that I really loved making and canning jam. And of course eating it. That's the best part :~)

 There's something satisfying about putting the jars into the water. I think because it's basically the end. You've made the jam, and you set the jars in the water. All you have to do then is wait for about five minutes and pull the jars out.

 As you're cleaning up, there's the lovely sound of the lids popping as they seal. Another one of those satisfying jam making moments. You let them finish popping, and coming down to room temp, then go through and tighten all of the rings. And you're done. They're ready to go on the shelf and wait to be opened and consumed.

This jam goes along with pretty much anything. I didn't have bread when I made it, so I ate it with cream cheese and saltine crackers. That is, that's what I ate it with when I stopped eating it with a spoon...
I've since made bread, and it's amazing on a piece of bread with butter. Gave some to my Grampa, and he ate it on pringles, and on a baked potato. Apparently it was good on both. I made a dessert pizza with it a few days ago also. Oh my, was that good. The recipe will be coming along pretty soon.
One thing I love about the recipe is that it's so basic that you can add anything into it. You could add other seasonings, you can add some other kind of fruit to it, you can totally make the recipe yours. And it's amazing!
Let me know if you try the recipe, and what changes you make to it, or what you use it on.