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In my last post for Wit & Delight, I was a busy mother of four. Fast forward almost three years and I am now the proud mother of five children! I think Jim Gaffigan described the experience of having a big family best when asked, “If you want to know what it’s like to have a fourth, just imagine you’re drowning…and then someone hands you a baby.” This is 100% accurate. Number five wasn’t “planned” per se but life is beautiful because he’s in it. 

I have always been a person who loved being in the kitchen. My closest friends and family would lovingly describe me as a “feeder.” My love for people is poured into the food I make and knowing that what I made them brings them satisfaction, nutrition, and joy. I find personal joy in creating recipes, curating flavors, and in the process of learning how to make new things. Remember above how I mentioned I had five children? Well number five, along with all his joy, also came into this world allergic to so many foods. A post for another time is the story behind it and the perseverance that comes from managing a household with fatal allergies, but for now, the short story is that I make 95% of the things he consumes from scratch. 

I have always been a person who loved being in the kitchen. . . . My love for people is poured into the food I make and knowing that what I made them brings them satisfaction, nutrition, and joy.

He is allergic to dairy, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, black beans, cabbage, and seeds (chia seeds, sesame seeds, rapeseeds, etc). Because of that, making sure he has a well-balanced yet healthy diet without feeling left out from his older siblings and friends has become a personal mission of mine. He has never eaten meals that weren’t provided from our home. (I have come close to letting him have rice and carnitas from Chipotle, but chickened out.) Thankfully there a few kinds of packaged foods we can have on hand like Oatly, coconut yogurt, and some cereals. But the bulk of what I make is from pure ingredients. 

This soup recipe is a family favorite of ours. It’s a creamy soup packed full of yummy, flavorful root vegetables. In the fall I’ll add parsnips too for more of an earthy flavor. The best part of this creamy soup is that it contains no cream. Omitting the use of dairy in my recipes was something that I thought would be super hard at first, but I realized once I opened myself to new ways to cook and bake it wasn’t as hard as I feared. If anything, I’m realizing more and more that we overuse dairy in a lot of things where it’s not necessary. Save your money folks!

This soup recipe is a family favorite of ours. It’s a creamy soup packed full of yummy, flavorful root vegetables. . . . It can easily be made without meat or with turkey instead of pork. The recipe also adapts well to being made in an Instant Pot.

This soup can easily be made without meat or with turkey instead of pork. The recipe also adapts well to being made in an Instant Pot, which is my number one kitchen tool of choice lately.  

I hope you enjoy this soup as much as my family does. 

Creamy Sweet Potato Soup…Without Cream!

Ingredients

Yield: Approximately 8 servings (And it freezes well!)

• 1lb of hot ground sausage
• 3 32oz boxes of chicken stock
• 3 T minced garlic
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 T olive oil
• 4 medium sweet potatoes
• 5 medium yellow potatoes or 8-9 small potatoes
• 6 celery sticks
• 6 medium carrots
• Salt & pepper
• 3 cup of fresh spinach

*To make vegan omit meat or use a meatless ‘meat’ substitute. Omit chicken stock for vegetable stock.

** To make without pork, use ground turkey with 1 T of red pepper flakes.

Stovetop Directions

Step one: Brown sausage with 1 T of olive oil in a large stock/soup pot. While meat is browning, begin peeling the skin off of the sweet potatoes and carrots. Once the sausage is completely cooked, drain the excess fat from the sausage and set in a bowl to the side.

Step two: Return the pot to the stove and set heat to medium. Add 1 T olive oil and one diced yellow onion. Cook the onion until translucent. Add 3 T of garlic, keep stirring onion and garlic so they do not stick to the bottom. Add chopped celery and carrots. Let them absorb the flavors. Stir continuously.

Step three: Add chicken stock. Make sure to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add cubed sweet potato and golden potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Step four: Bring the ingredients to a boil and cook until the potatoes and carrots are soft enough to mush.

Step five: Remove from heat. Carefully add 2-3 cups of the soup at a time to a blender and blend until the soup is creamy. If you have an immersion blender, use that instead, in the pot directly.

Step six: Once the soup is creamy, return the soup in the pot to the stovetop and add the cooked meat back in. Stir.

Step seven: Add the fresh spinach. Simmer until the spinach is wilted.

Step eight: Enjoy!

Instant Pot Directions

Step one: Turn your Instant Pot to “sauté.” Add the sausage and sauté until cooked through. Remove meat, drain the excess oil.

Step two: Add 1 T olive oil, keep the sauté option on, add onion, and cook until translucent. Add garlic, continuously stirring. Add the carrot and celery.

Step three: Turn off the sauté option. Add the chicken stock, sweet potatoes, and golden potatoes.

Step four: Put on the Instant Pot lid, turn the lid knob to “seal.” Select “pressure cook” and set for 9 minutes.

Step five: Once the cooking time is complete, carefully turn the knob to venting for a quick release.

Step six: With your immersion blender, blend in the Instant Pot until smooth.

Step seven: Remove the lid and add the cooked meat and fresh spinach.

Step eight: Enjoy!

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