Circulation Soup

It snowed yesterday. Yep. Snow.

As promised, here's the recipe for a mighty nice soup that will help keep your blood flowing and (hopefully) keep the chill at bay:

Ingredients:

2 Tbs olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 Tbs chopped garlic
1 Tbs minced ginger
pinch cayenne
1 Tsp salt
3 or 4 nice-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
7 cups vegetable stock
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup green peas
2 cups chopped watercress
1 cup chopped cilantro
Salt & pepper

In a large soup pot, fry the onion, garlic and ginger in the olive oil on medium heat for a few minutes, till the onion starts to brown. Add the cayenne and salt and cook for a minute, then stir in the sweet potato. Let it cook a few minutes to absorb the flavors. Then add the stock and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for maybe 15 or 20 minutes, till the potatoes get soft.

Take everything off the heat, add the cinnamon stick and let the pot cool for 15 minutes or so.

When it's cool enough to handle, run the mixture through a blender and puree till it's velvety smooth. You'll probably need to do this in batches. Rinse out the soup pot and pour the puree back in. Put it on very low heat.

Whip the yogurt till it's smooth and creamy and stir it in. Add the peas, watercress and cilantro. Heat everything gently for a few minutes till it's all warmed through. You don't want to boil the yogurt though.

Add salt and pepper to taste. You probably won't need much.

Serve with corn bread or some kind of crusty baguette. Nice. Feel the warmth.