Sweet Potato Chipotle Soup

Tonight's dinner was a cozy sweet potato chipotle soup.  It was creamy, spicy, and truly, truly, truly outrageous.  I love soups and stews for a quick dinner fix that will reheat well during the week when I don't feel like or have time to cook an elaborate dinner.  We have had quite a bit of soupy success with recipes from various Moosewood cookbooks, and more recently with recipes from Martha Stewart's website.  Today's recipe was based on a Martha Stewart creation but with several delicious additions.

Martha Stewart's quick soup recipes
There are lots of recipes here that look good, and we have tried several already, all with good results.

I started with the same base as the soup recipe.
oil
1 grated onion (I said I'd never go back, and I won't)
2 minced garlic cloves
salt, pepper
2 tsp cumin
1 canned chipotle pepper in adobo
2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in small dice
6 cups chicken stock

First heat the oil, cook the onion, add salt and pepper.  Add garlic and cumin and cook about one minute.  Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil, then reduce heat, partially cover and simmer for 25 minutes until potatoes are tender.  Blend the soup using an immersion blender until creamy.  This is a delicious soup base!  It has a thick, rich and creamy consistency, the likes of which you would expect to have a much higher fat content.

However, Martha S' recipe stops here.  I think this soup would be too boring and unsatisfying as a whole dinner, so I took it a couple steps further and added some "chunks" to fill this soup out and add some texture and color. (more sweet potatoes, roasted peppers, green onions).

Soup additions:
While preparing the soup on the stove, put 2 pounds of sweet potatoes cut in small dice in a 400 F oven and roast until tender.  Add these potatoes to above mixture after blended and leave these potatoes as chunks in the soup.

Roast 3 red peppers, chop into bite size pieces and add these chunks to the blended soup mixture.  You can make your roasted peppers however you like.  If you have a preferred method please share it as a comment!  I coat them in oil and put them in the broiler, checking and turning them occasionally until blackened on the outside.  This takes about 15 minutes.  When I remove the peppers from the oven I place them in a paper bag, and fold down the top of the bag to seal in the heat. Once the peppers are cool, I remove them from the bag and peel off and discard the skin, and remove seeds and stems.  Easy!

When the soup is ready to serve chop some fresh green onions to sprinkle atop the soup as garnish.

Add a dollop of sour cream and you're done.