African Sweet Potato, Peanut and White Bean Soup

Today I woke up early, as normally, did my morning routines, took a shower, brushed my teeth, made and drank coffee, did some pinteresting and browsed the news online. I was about to leave home when I started to check my shifts, in order to be sure I had the morning shift. The amazement was huge when the list said “free”! I had to call my colleagues at the office and ask them to check if that was really true.

And it was, so me and S decided to clean up the apartment, I planned to go to the supermarket to get our weekly stuff and S was going to spend the evening at the Finnish language course, where he’s doing really well (I’m so proud, as anyone who has ever tried to learn Finnish knows it’s one of the hardest languages in the world, alongside of Hungarian and Estonian). So when we were waking up in bed very late this afternoon S made me a riddle by drawing…which I had to solve to find out he wished me to bake a chocolate cake.

So after his daily dose of Finnish there was a chocolate tart waiting for him. The recipe will follow, but first I want to tell you what I cooked for dinner tonight.

The soup was so hearty, so flavorous and so good. The recipe is adapted from Vegetarian Times. The original calls for spinach, but I forgot to buy it. Instead I used some baked white beans, as I guessed S would like some protein in the soup. It worked fine, but I am sure spinach would have been lovely too!

A word about harissa paste too. This North African delicious spice paste is so rich in flavor, that I just love it. However, I’ve noticed some brands are hotter than others. So I have decided to use the mildest one I’ve found, so that I can use it in quite large amounts and get all benefits of the wonderful flavors. 

African Sweet Potato, Peanut and White Bean Soup (serves your whole family)

2 large sweet potatoes, washed

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small leek (white and light green parts), halved and washed

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon cumin

3 tablespoons peanut butter

2 heaping tablespoons harissa paste

750ml light chicken stock

1 can baked white beans, drained

salt to taste

peanuts, fresh coriander and Turkish yogurt to garnish

Place the sweet potatoes in a microwave and cook in full power for 10 minutes. Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise, and cook for 10 minutes more, or so long that they are relatively soft.

Cut the meat off the potato skins with a spoon.

Heat the olive oil in a medium/large saucepan or a Dutch oven. Chop the leaks and sautée them over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Add garlic, turmeric and cumin, and keep sauteeing for 1 minute more. Add harissa, peanut butter, sweet potatoes and chicken stock and let simmer for 20 minutes, half covered.

Take the pan off the heat and puree the soup by using a stick blender.

Put back to heat and add the beans. Add some water if the soup is too thick. Season with salt if needed.

Serve with some yogurt, coriander and peanuts.

South African Yellow Rice

I’m sorry that the following post will be shorter than normally. I love to share things about food with you, but I just came home from work (it’s 1AM) and I’m exhausted… But since I haven’t updated anything yesterday I felt the need to take a little time to write. Oh, I miss those times already, when I had all the time in the world to do whatever I want!

But now, to food! The first time I am posting here something that I didn’t cook myself. All the credit for this delicious side dish goes to my better half S. He prepared the dish and I only came to the ready table to photograph, and to eat. This South African rice was totally worth a try, something different. Brazilians are huge rice lovers and they eat it a lot, with everything (even with mashed potatoes - carbs on carbs, eh). I’m happy S came up with a rice dish that was also new to him. I love cinnamon and I have used it in cooking when preparing some North African dishes. It worked here as well. 

Unfortunately I cannot refer to the original recipe, as we are not sure where it was found. But with quick googling I could see all the recipes for this dish are quite similar.

South African Yellow Rice

3dl long-grain rice

600ml water

1/2 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

big handful of seedless raisins

1 small cinnamon stick

2cm piece of lemon peel, yellow part only

Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add in water all ingredients except the rice, raisins and butter. Simmer until sugar is completely dissolved, stirring constantly. 

Melt butter in another, large saucepan. Add rice and cook stirring, until all the grains are shiny and covered in butter. 

Pour the water with spices over the rice, season with salt and pepper and cook rice until tender.

When the rice is cooked, remove from heat and let stand covered for 10 minutes. Remove the lemon peel and cinnamon stick, fluff the rice with a fork.

Add the raisins, mix well, pour into a serving dish and garnish with a beautiful cinnamon stick. Serve hot.