Today's Cooking with Beer recipe is one that I created for the North Carolina Sweet Potatoes recipe contest: Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup with crème fraiche (Vegetarian friendly). For this recipe, I used a Dogfish Head Midas Touch ale. If you're not familiar with this beer, it's an ancient ale created by Dogfish Head that is brewed with honey, muscat grapes, and saffron threads. I thought this beer would go perfect in this soup since you'll get some natural sweetness from the honey and muscat grapes, and the saffron will lend a nice earthy note to it too.
Here are the ingredients you will need for this simple and easy-to-make soup:
2 large sweet potatoes - peeled and cubed
1 7.5 oz can of chipotle peppers with adobo sauce (pureed)
2 tablespoons of butter
1 12 oz bottle of Dogfish Head Midas Touch
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
Vegetable broth (used as a thinning agent)
Crème fraiche
Cinnamon (sprinkle for garnish)
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat
2. When butter is hot, add shallots and saute for 1 minute
3. Add diced sweet potatoes and saute for 5 minutes
- add salt and pepper
4. After five minutes, add the Midas Touch ale, chipotle peppers, brown sugar, and honey
- add salt and pepper
5. Bring mix up to a boil, then reduce to a simmer
6. Simmer for 30 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are fork tender
7. Blend all ingredients with an immersion blender (can also put into a regular blender in batches)
8. Once blended simmer for another 10 minutes
- add vegetable broth at this stage if mixture is too thick
9. Once soup has reached the desired consistency, ladle into a soup bowl
10. Add a dollop of crème fraiche and sprinkle cinnamon on top
11. Enjoy!
This soup should be a little sweet and spicy, but the crème fraiche should add a nice tangy and creamy note to it, which should cut through some of that spiciness.
