This sweet and spicy Sweet Potato Chipotle Soup is perfect for soup season. It's hearty and nutritious making it a meal in a bowl. Get the recipe below.

A warming bowl of soup

A warming bowl of soup can be a fantastic thing. It is not only a simple yet healthy meal, it is comforting too. Perfect for the cold winter months when we are all suffering from a lack of Vitamin D and feeling a little down as a result. (That's right the dark, cold months, can lead to something known as Seasonal Affective Disorder which essentially means the weather makes your mood suffer.

But don't worry, its not all as bleak as it may seem! I'm teaming up with Vitamix to bring you a series of soup recipes each week in January. They are warm, comforting recipes (and healthy too!)

This Sweet Potato and chipotle Soup can easily be made in a vitamix blender. Get this recipe and more like it at Supper in the Suburbs. It's the perfect dinner or light lunch when you're trying to be healthy.

Sweet and spicy

When it's cold and dark out there are two words that are bound to put a smile on my face and make my stomach rumble - sweet and spicy. For my contribution to Vitamix's soup month, I wanted to make a tasty soup, packed full of veggies that had plenty of heat to blow away the cobwebs. Right now my chilli of choice is the smokey chipotle. Chipotles are actually jalapenos that have been dried through smoking. They give a real earthy kind of heat to a dish and I think they go perfectly with sweet potatoes!

Sweet potatoes were a must for this soup, not just because they taste great with chipotle but because of their awesome properties. they are high in essentials like vitamin B6 and vitamin C which helps fend off colds and flu this time of year. Plus they taste sweet without being bad for you. In fact, they won't cause a blood sugar spike at all! When you're trying to get down on your sugar and chocolate intake post Christmas, foods like sweet potatoes are an absolute treat!

Finding balance

When we eat sweet potatoes at home we often turn them into wedges of fries, served with Mexican bean burgers and other fiery dishes. They taste amazing drenched in paprika or chilli flakes. I don't think there's any spice they can't handle which is why I use plenty of chipotle in this recipe! Feel free to half or even quarter the amount I've used if you're not a fan of really spicy food.

The beauty of combining sweet and spicy food is that they balance each other out. Too spicy, add a little more sweet. Too sweet, add a little more spicy. I would always recommend putting in less chipotle to begin with, run the Vitamix on it's hot soup setting then if the sweet potatoes are a little too sweet and you want more of a kick, add in more chipotle. Blend it for a little longer and you'll have the perfect, balanced soup.

Vitamix soups

Ever since Vitamix kindly gifted me their blender back in November I've been obsessed with its hot soup setting. Of course you can use the blender for smoothies, salad dressing and nut butters (all of which are very useful) but for me it's most useful function is making soups!

Why do I love the hot soup function so much? Well, you can have a piping hot soup in just 6 minutes. Yep, you heard me right. You just chuck in the ingredients (roughly chopped saving you precious prep time) and the blender does all the hard work. It spins around SO fast that it creates enough friction to heat the soup up to the perfect temperature. How clever is that?!

Now, I'll admit. This soup will take you a little longer than 6 minutes because to get the best possible flavour you'll need to roast the sweet potato in advance. Don't have time for that? Then give them 5-10 minutes in the microwave first so they are soft and velvety then whack them in the blender with the rest of the ingredients.

Or, if you're not fussed about eating the sweet potato raw (don't worry it's not poisonous and those on raw diets and the paleo diet swear by it) then skip this step out altogether. Just make sure you cut the sweet potato really small. Personally I think you get a deeper, richer flavour from the slightly caramelised edges when the sweet potato has been roasted (or failing that microwaved!)

How to make Sweet Potato Chipotle Soup in a regular blender

The following recipe presumes you have a Vitamix blender. If not, follow the same steps and blend the soup in your blender as usual. Once it's smooth simply pour into a saucepan and heat for 5 minutes on a medium heat until simmering. Let it simmer for 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

The recipe