Sausage Sweet Potato Soup

Zizi likes food high in iron and fiber, like spinach.

Not to pat our own backs, but there is a lot of goodness in this soup blog besides the soup recipes alone. Lets note what Martha Rose Shulman (not related to that other set of Shulmans some of you might know...) said on March 16th in the New York Times.

"I'm convinced that one of the reasons the French diet is such a healthy one, despite the butter and cheese, is that dinner in France is often a simple vegetable soup made with whatever ingredients are fresh. Soups fill you up, they're comforting, and they offer a lot of concentrated nutrition in a bowl at a reasonable cost, both caloric and monetary. They're simple to make and forgiving."

Amen sister. Take that "This Is Why You're Fat."

Moving on. This week's soup is a marriage of two good things. Sweet potatoes and sausage. What a lovely union brought together in our soup pot. I was excited about the idea of the soup when Alayna and I were discussing it this past week and I was even more excited about the final product. Which was lighter than you'd imagine because we didn't puree the soup, so it was broth based. A good light broth which mixed well with the sweet potato and sausage, which, er, are heavier creatures. But lovely nonetheless.


I was SO excited about the final product that even as I sensed a numbing sensation in my cheeks that was slowly spreading towards my ears, I still decided on a second bowl. Alayna and I finished up and I went to do the dishes while neurotically poking my face. "I still don't feel my face," I thought quietly becoming more and more frantic. (I'm a slightly neurotic person, p.s.).
A short while later when my tongue started to itch and I was in my bedroom googling how much time I had before my throat closed I decided I should tell Alayna my situation so she would be ready to call 911 when airways were blocked. Which at this point I deemed inevitable.
Alayna, ever calm, told me I have eaten everything in the soup a million times so it probably wasn't a food allergy. She gave me a Benadryl and told me maybe I should make tea.
I thought for a moment.
"Why would tea help open my air passages?"
"Well, it probably won't. But I would really like a cup."


I survived the night. Surprise, surprise. And I don't blame the soup. I'm not sure what I blame but as Martha Rose Shulman says, soup is forgiving. And so am I.

(Update: After talking to a nurse I have concluded that my reaction was due to sushi I ate a while before, and NOT the soup. Do not fear, soup fans.)

Everything You Have Been Waiting For:

The Recipe

Sausages always look jokey.

In a big pot saute six cloves of garlic and one medium onion (chopped)

Add in about six small white potatoes and two medium sized yams (or one big one) and simmer covered until they start getting soft.

Once they are getting soft, cover, add chicken broth and bring up the heat to a low boil

In a separate pan, saute seven spicy Italian sausages, cut into bite sized pieces until cooked through.

When potatoes are almost cooked through (check by stabbing with a fork), add the sausages.

For extra wonderful taste add their delicious, delicious juices (aka scrap the grease off the pan into the soup.)

Tear up about three big handfuls of spinach and put directly into the soup, cooking for about another five minutes.

Let it be known Alayna is wearing sweatpants under her dress.

And I make soup after I come home from the gym. I'm training for a 1/2 marathon! April 26th! Who-hoo.

Souper Cheap:

All ingredients were purchased at the Essex Street Market, total cost was $10.58