A soup for the wintery evenings…

Hyderabad is pretty cold these days, and the evenings are spent with me sitting in the balcony with my laptop, teeth chattering all the time... and still enjoying the chilly weather. [Did I mention that Winter is my favorite time of the year?]
But then, there is nothing better than a nice bowlful of soup, no? At all times, no? With or without bread, no? :-)
Here it is... my first soup of the season.

I picked the basic idea of making a soup with sweet potato and cauliflowers from Manifest Vegan's soup, but I didn't follow the same recipe. I wanted something that was quick and easy.

I am a huge fan of sweet potatoes. I can eat them in any form, once they are cooked. Mom used to pressure cook them with a big chunk of jaggery and I would eat them as they were... with the skin and all. :-) And then, there is this another snack she makes, with the sweet potatoes cooked like a curry, but with a tinge of jaggery and salt in it. That is a favorite too. The husband doesn't have an opinion on these vegetables. He doesn't mind as long as the end dish has flavor and sports a red color. [Its a long story, but I'll just say that it took me ~5 yrs. to make him understand that food can be in a non-red color and still taste good. The process was long and had its own share of fits at the dinner table, but he and non-red-colored food are co-existing these days ...:-)]

Sweet potatoes cook pretty fast even on an open flame, but pressure cooking them is one of the easiest methods. And if you , like me, have one of those 1 lt pressure cookers which will cook anything in 10 min flat, then that's the best one for these kinda dishes. Mine is this very cute Prestige pressure cooker, and its called Apple. Just that my apple is black in color. :-)
This gives out the steam in no time, and anything.. absolutely anything in it will be cooked and ready in 10 min flat.
Also, what I've come to highly value  when making soups is my hand blender, something which I was skeptical about when I was buying it and wasn't sure if I would ever use at all... Its quite handy, and the detachable parts make it less messy to use.
Now that's my soup setup.

I added the onions only to give the soup some body, but when I finally finished cooking it, I realized I didn't have to worry about the body of the soup. This would be a thick soup as it is , because of the boiled sweet potatoes. Feel free to omit the onions from this recipe, if they are not your thing. Similarly, Za'atar powder is optional too. I added them to give a tart taste to the soup. Also, inspired by the original recipe, I reserved some cauliflowers aside as a topping to the soup. If you don't care for looks, you can omit this step, and just cook them all together.

I don't generally prefer sieving my soups. I believe that it removes the all-important fiber and content from the soup. But if you don't prefer chunks of vegetables in your soup, you should consider sieving the soup once it is mashed with the blender. The body of the soup might reduce and it might become watery, but hey... if that's what you like, that's how its gonna be ! :-)

Recipe inspired from Manifest Vegan's Sweet potato & Cauliflower soup

Sweet potato & Cauliflower soup
Level - Easy
Prep time - 20 min
Cooking time - 30 min

Ingredients [Serves 4]

Sweet Potato, cleaned and pressure cooked and cut in inch-sized pieces - 200 gms or 2 Cups
Onion, cut in thin strips - 1 , medium
Cauliflower florets, cleaned and blanched - 1 C
Dried Thyme - 1 Tsp
Turmeric - 1 Tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 Tsp
Garam masala - 1 Tsp
Za'atar powder - 1 Tsp [Optional]
Salt - To taste
Olive oil - 1 Tbsp
Hot water - 3 C

Instructions
Heat the oil in a deep pan, and sauté half the amount of cauliflower florets with the thyme. Keep this on a medium flame for 5 min, while ensuring that all the florets are equally cooked. Remove from heat and keep aside.

In the same oil, sauté the onions. Add the turmeric, chilli and garam masala powders to the onions. Now add the cut sweet potato pieces and cauliflower florets to this and sauté for a minute.
Add the water and Za'atar powder, and bring this to a boil. Turn off the heat once the soup boils.

Using a hand blender, mash the ingredients till they are all mixed and blended well.

Add some more hot water, mix well and boil this soup for another 10 min, till it boils. Add salt to taste.

Serve hot, with the sauted cauliflower florets as toppings.