Sweet Potato Soup

I've been trying to cook ribs for three days! They're not something readily available in Japan, just a treat we get once in a while and usually from Costco. But these last three days have seen a bit of juggling with my weekly menu. 

I switched the meal I'd planned for Saturday with Friday's meal so as to give our Australian visitor from Taiwan a taste of Japan (we had Stir Fried Pork and Noodles or Yakisoba).  Then she ended up staying with us another night, but the meal (ribs) I'd planned for Saturday night wasn't big enough for six of us. So I switched the ribs with the meal I'd planned for tonight: Sweet Potato Soup. 

Finally we have the ribs on tonight, though I was distracted at the time they should have gone in the slow cooker (my preferred method of doing ribs), and we had to resort to baking them in the oven and probably finishing them off in the microwave for the sake of speed.

But back to last night's soup—it was delicious, if I may say so myself! Our guest asked for the recipe and so I wondered if others might like it too. It is very quick and easy not to mention filling and inexpensive. Dairy-heavy, though.

All the important ingredients are easily available in Japan, though coconut milk might take a little bit of hunting for it is easily bought when you see it and kept in a can on the shelf for when you need it.

My mum gave this to me as a cutting out of a newspaper some time ago. It's taken me some time to get around to adding it to our repertoire, but really I'm glad I have now.

Ingredients
750g sweet potato, peeled and chopped
2 tsp oil
1 med onion, chopped
2 tsp red curry paste (I didn't have any of this, so I used 2 tsp curry powder instead)
2 Tbspn lemon grass, chopped (I didn't have this either and didn't substitute anything for it)
2 cups milk (dairy or soy)
1 cup coconut milk (light, if you wish and have it available)
2 tsp fresh coriander, chopped (optional, I didn't use this)

Method
1. Place sweet potato in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer until sweet potato is soft. Then discard cooking water.
2. Heat oil in a frypan. Sauté onion, curry paste/powder, and (optional) lemon grass until soft.
3. Remove from heat and add mixture to the cooked sweet potato. Add milk and coconut milk. Blend or process mixture until smooth and creamy.
4. Reheat but do not boil. Stir through fresh coriander, if you wish.
Serves 4.

I doubled this last night and it served five of us with leftovers (one boy doesn't like sweet potato, he had tinned chicken noodle soup).

Enjoy! (Sorry no photo, I didn't plan to blog about it and now the soup is gone.)