Sweet Potato & Roasted Carrot Soup

I love soups, especially this time of year, because they are so easy to make, and so warm and hearty. This soup is thick, creamy, full of flavor, and could be easily adapted to keep mixing things up.


Sweet Potato & Roasted Carrot Soup
Recipe inspired by SMBP's Creamy Avocado Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup
Serves 2-3
Ingredients:

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1/2 large avocado
• 4 large carrots, sliced into sticks (I cut each carrot in half, and then quartered the halves lengthwise)
• 2 small golden beets, sliced into small half-rounds
• Dash of cumin (or more to taste)
• 1 tsp agave
• 3-4 cups water
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• Salt & pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. 
2. Place sweet potatoes in oven and bake for ~30 min, until tender when pierced with a fork. Remove from oven and set aside. 
3. Increase oven temp to 450F. Place carrots on a large baking sheet and toss with 1/2 Tbsp or so of olive oil; use another 1/2 for the beets, and wrap the beets in tin foil. Place beets and carrots in oven and roast until tender, about 20 minutes.
4. Scoop out the sweet potato from the skin and place in food processor. Let your obsessively staring dog eat the potato skins ;-)
5. Add the roasted beets and most of the carrots (I probably had about a cup leftover that I used as a side/garnish/pre-dinner snack!) to the food processor and pulse. Add 1 cup water and continue processing until smooth. Then add the avocado, and additional water as needed, and process until the mixture is nice and smooth.
6. Heat ~ 1Tbsp olive oil in pot, and add the garlic. Allow the garlic to get a little browned, for a "toasted garlic" effect. Then add in the sweet potato/carrot mix, followed by agave and spices. Add additional water to thin as desired, but not more than 4 cups total (including what you added during processing; alternatively, instead of adding more water, you could add vegetable broth). 
7. Continue stirring as you heat. Serve hot, garnishing with leftover roasted carrots and avocado if desired.

Notes & Variations
This goes reeeeaaaaallly well with some toasted pita and melted Daiya mozzarella cheese with avocado slices :)

If you like peppers, head on over to SMBP for her chipotle version. I made it last year and it was kick-ass; sadly, though, peppers upset my stomach, so I couldn't eat much of it.

Other variations that I think would be good:

• Use a combo of roasted carrots & parsnips instead of the addition of the beets- we make a sweet potato & parsnip puree that is absolutely deeeeelish, so I KNOW this is a yummy combo.
• Add in some fresh herbs
• Use veggie broth
• Play around with spices

Enjoy!