Sexy Vegan Soup Series, Installment #1

Welcome to the first installment of ecobrands®’ “Sexy Vegan Soup Series”! Even if you’re not vegan, you will love our soup recipes, all of which are chef-crafted with healthy, organic ingredients and zero animal products. To kick off our Sexy Vegan Soup Series, our first recipe is “Mexican Sweet Potato & Roasted Corn Bisque!” As you will soon see, butter and heavy cream are not necessary to achieve a smooth, savory bisque that’s packed with flavor. Furthermore, for those fellow health nuts out there, sweet potatoes are highly nutritious, and are full of vitamin A, vitamin C, manganese, anti-oxidants, minerals, and fiber. These nutritional qualities help support a healthy gut, vision, brain function, and your immune system, while their antioxidants may even help prevent cancer.¹

This recipe is also quite versatile with a few simple alterations. For example, you can leave out the Mexican spices and make it a little bit “looser” to be used as a vegan pasta sauce. Or you can substitute the Mexican spices with curry spices for an Indian twist. Never forget that you are the chef, so feel free to take my recipes and run with them!

As always, please try to buy organic ingredients whenever possible in order to avoid consuming pesticides and fertilizers. As I say in my limited kitchen Spanish, “Para mi, no es bueno!” If you’d like to learn why we buy organic ingredients, one of our sponsored nonprofits, EWG, has tremendous guides, including their famous “Dirty Dozen,” that will make you think twice about buying conventionally farmed ingredients….

On to the recipe notes! First, whenever I write recipes, I group the ingredients based on the different procedures. When I mention “broiler” below, you can easily roast, grill, or sauté the vegetables instead. Any chef will tell you that browning ingredients is how you get flavor, so whether you broil, roast, grill, or sauté the ingredients, make sure you brown them thoroughly in order to get the most flavor out of them. I hope you enjoy my recipe and please reach out if you have any questions!

Yield: About 3 Qts (12 Cups or 6-8 Bowls)

Prep Time: 45 Minutes Prep Time Plus 45 Minutes Cook Time

Tools Needed: Knife, Potato Peeler, Pot, Broiler/Oven/Grill, Blender or Immersion Burr Mixer

Ingredients

• 2 Poblano Peppers (*Or more, to your tastes)
• 1 Jalapeno Pepper (*Or more, to your tastes)
• ¼ Cup (12-16) Organic Garlic Cloves (I’m personally terrified of Vampires.)
• 1 Organic Onion, Sliced
• 4 Ears of Fresh Organic Corn
• Drizzle Organic Olive Oil

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• 2 Qts Organic Vegetable Stock, No or Low Sodium
• 3 Lbs Organic Sweet Potatoes, Peeled, Sliced
• 3 tsp Organic Ground Cumin
• 3 tsp Sea Salt (*Or to taste)
• 1 tsp Organic Ground Black Pepper

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• 1 14 Oz Can of Organic Coconut Milk

Garnishes

• Cilantro
• Lime
• Tortilla Strips OR Crushed Tortilla Chips OR Pepitas (Something with crunch to contrast with the velvety texture of the soup.)

Instructions

1. Turn your broiler on low. (You can turn it on high, but please watch your onions and garlic so that they don’t burn!)
2. Cut the stems off of the peppers, and then cut them in half. Leave the seeds in for spice. Slice the onion into roughly 1/4” thick slices. Shuck the corn.
3. Add these first five ingredients to a mixing bowl and drizzle with organic olive oil. Toss to lightly coat the veggies.
4. Arrange them on a foil covered sheet pan, so that the pepper skins are facing up and no veggies are overlapping others.
5. Put the pan into your oven and set a timer for 10-20 minutes depending on how hot your broiler gets. The goal is to blacken the pepper skins for easy removal, while also browning the other veggies. If the pepper skins are not blackening after 10-12 minutes, move the oven shelf up closer to the broiler and/or increase the temp to high, but watch closely so that the other veggies don’t burn. If you need to, you can remove the onions, garlic, and corn early if the peppers need more time to blister.
6. Set the roasted corn aside. Allow the veggies to cool. Then peel the skin off of the peppers and rough chop the garlic, onions, and peppers. Add them all to a large pot. (The great thing about a pureed soup is that you don’t have to be fancy with your knife! Simply rough chop everything, but always be careful with any blade!)
7. Peel and rough slice or chop the sweet potatoes.
8. Add the organic veggie stock, peeled and chopped sweet potatoes, cumin, salt, and pepper to the pot.
9. Bring to a boil, and once boiling, reduce heat to medium low or a gentle boil. Set a timer for 40 minutes.
10. Once the sweet potatoes are soft, add the coconut milk to the pot, and then use either an immersion burr mixer or blender (in batches) to puree the soup for at least 1 minute on high. *If the soup is too thick, add a little more stock, coconut milk or water.
11. Slice the roasted corn off of the cob and stir it into the pureed soup.
12. Thinly slice soft corn tortillas into strips and deep fry for 2-3 minutes using a fryer set to 350°F. OR, simply crush up some organic store-bought tortilla chips, OR sprinkle on some toasted pepitas….go with whatever your 100% is today!
13. Finally, finish the soup with the tortilla strips, crushed tortilla chips, or pepitas, minced cilantro, and a slice of lime!...y buen provecho!

As always, thank you sincerely for reading and trying my recipes. Once again, please feel free to adapt anything to your personal liking. I wish you all the best on your path to sustainable living, as I continue on my own!

1. Julson, Erica. “6 Surprising Health Benefits of Sweet Potatoes.” Healthline. February 8^th, 2024. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/sweet-potato-benefits#promotes-gut-health.