Sweet Potato Chorizo Soup
Warm your soul with this creamy Sweet Potato Chorizo Soup! Ground, paprika-spiced chorizo, aromatic veggies, and tender sweet potatoes simmer in a savory broth, then get swirled with creamy Boursin cheese. Crispy fried sage leaves add a final touch of elegance. This simple, yet impressive, soup is perfect for a cozy fall meal or a quick weeknight dinner.
Servings 4
Ingredients
For the fried sage:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 12 fresh sage leaves chopped
For the soup:
- 1/2 pound ground Mexican chorizo*
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 leeks white and light green parts only, chopped
- 1 celery rib chopped
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 1/2 to 2 pounds sweet potatoes peeled and chopped (about 2 medium-ish potatoes)
- Sherry (not vinegar)
- 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup half and half
- 1 tablespoon Boursin cheese spread (or similar garlic cheese spread)
- salt and pepper for seasoning
Instructions
For the fried sage:
- Heat the olive oil in a 4-5 quart Dutch oven or stock pot until shimmering. Fry the sage leaves with a pinch of salt until just crispy (don't burn them - it will take less than a minute). Spoon out the sage, leaving the oil behind, and set aside.
For the soup:
- Crumble the chorizo into the pot and cook thoroughly. Transfer to a plate.
- Add more olive oil if the pan is dry. Saute the onions, leeks, celery, and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes.
- Add the sweet potatoes and saute until the edges are golden, about 8 minutes.
- Add a splash of sherry to deglaze the pan, scraping the fond into the vegetables. Add the stock and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain an active simmer. Cover partially, and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Near the end of the 20 minutes, reduce heat to low. Test potatoes for doneness: they should be easily pierced with a fork.
- Puree the soup with an immersion blender. Add the half and half and Boursin and stir until creamy (it will take a few minutes for the Boursin to melt into the soup).
- Add the sausage to the soup and mix well, letting the meat reheat. Ladle into bowls and top each serving with a pinch of the fried sage.
Notes
*Mexican chorizo is usually found ground in one-pound packs, like ground beef. Use half for this recipe and freeze the other half. They're sometimes available in link form, also ground.
Spanish chorizo, on the other hand, is usually in link form and is a hard sausage, like salami. Be sure to use ground chorizo.
Side note: I discovered an interesting technique on a subsequent preparation of this soup, when I accidentally forgot to remove the sausage before dumping in all of the aromatics (ever try to pick sausage crumbles out of other chunky things? Fail). I still wanted a smooth, creamy potato soup, so I just blended the sausage right in with the soup. The result was awesome. The flavor of sausage was dispersed throughout the soup, but the texture was still smooth, as intended. It was a little "wait … what...?" moment with the first bite — very yummy.