SMOKEY SWEET POTATO AND CHIPOTLE SOUP

Smokey Sweet Potato and Chipotle Soup is wonderful on cold day!

Let’s make Smokey Sweet Potato and Chipotle soup with our Smoked Sweet Potatoes!

You did it!  You stepped outside the norm and you smoked sweet potatoes.  Congratulations!  You now have a flavor level to a root vegetable that can only be achieved from wood smoke infusion.  Now, what do you make with this flavorful root vegetable?

Why not start with our easy, flavorful soup featuring a kick of spice to balance the creamy sweetness of the potatoes.  You’ll need about 5 medium sized sweet potatoes that have been smoked and tenderized.  You can visit our previous article on smoking sweet potatoes which includes directive on the gas grill as well as the charcoal grill application.

Get your smoked sweet potatoes to the kitchen as we start the makings of a great soup you’ll treasure any time of the year.

#smokedSweetpotato

Prep Time

When you smoke sweet potatoes with the skin on, you’ll find versatility for your recipes.  For our soup, simply peel the skin away and slice each potato in half lengthwise, then cut into cubes.  You’ll need about 2 lbs. total of cubed, smoked sweet potato which will be 4-5 whole smoked potatoes, dependent on the size.

Chop one medium white onion and preheat a tablespoon of oil in a medium saucepan.  Add the chopped onion, some salt and fresh ground pepper and allow to cook until brown around the edges.

#onion#saucepan

Once the onions have begun to brown, it’s time to spice things up.  Start by adding 2 teaspoons of ground cumin and 2 garlic cloves that have been minced to the onion mixture.  Stir to combine.  Now add 7 cups of low sodium chicken broth and 1 chopped chipotle chile in adobo sauce.  Allow these flavors to cook and marry for 15 minutes.

Blending to a Silky Finish

Whenever you make a smooth soup, you start with a softened main ingredient and then add a liquid base to it in stages.  That means start adding your cubes smoked sweet potatoes into the blender container until filled about ½ way.  Begin blending the potatoes.

#sweetpotato

Add a ladle full of the broth mixture and begin processing again.  If you have a blender equipped with a lid that has a pour opening, you can simply ladle in additional liquid base to reach the desired consistency of the soup.  I like mine to be about the consistency of a smoothie but you can alter the finish thickness by simply adding chicken broth.  Do the pureeing process in batches, returning each batch to a soup pot for a final heating.  I’ve done my puree process in three batches.

Once the finished puree is reheated, you’re done!  The sweetness of the potatoes and the slight kick of the chile combine so well to produce a balanced, silky texture and flavor.  Once ladled into a serving bowl, add a touch of sour cream or cream fraiche for a final swirl of perfection.

#cremefraiche

Honestly, this is one soup that could be enjoyed cold as well as hot, it’s that delicious either way.  Smoked sweet potato and chipotle soup.  Surely a favorite to make during fall but a cold cellar storage will help you enjoy for the whole year!

What’s your favorite recipe featuring sweet potatoes?  Leave us a comment and subscribe for more great recipes, techniques, tips, and the science behind the flavor, that’s SmokinLicious®.

 

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ADDING A SMOKE COMPONENT TO SMOKEY SWEET POTATOES

Try our technique on Smokey Sweet Potatoes for a great addition to your BBQ!

 

We introduced you to smoked potatoes some time ago giving you an easy method of smoking cubed potatoes .  Now, we look at sweet potato, a very popular root vegetable that does particularly well on the grill.  This time, we’ll smoke the potatoes whole to allow for versatility for recipes.

Get 5 or 6 sweet potatoes selected, preferably of equal size, and let’s get to the grill!

Choose Your Equipment

I’m going to use two pieces of equipment today to demonstrate how easily it is to work with what you own to add a smoke component. 

For my gas grill, I’ll be using a smoker box equipped with 3-4 wood chunks in double filet size.  For the charcoal grill, I’m incorporating both lump charcoal and briquet for the fuel and adding double filet wood chunks for flavor.  My charcoal grill is a traditional kettle grill.  Both these units are set up for two-zone cooking which means the fuel is on one side – in the case of the gas grill, burners are lit on one side only, for the charcoal grill, charcoal is banked to one side of the grill, using both lit and unlit coals to sustain the heat level.  All cooking will be done on the side that does not have any direct heat.

#woodchunks

With a target cooking temperature of 325-350°F, these sweet potatoes will cook up and get smoky in no time!

Tasting Notes: Preparation of the sweet potatoes prior to smoking is simple.  Wash the potatoes well, pat dry, and then trim off the two ends.  Using a knife, pierce the ends one time and the sides several times to provide injection areas for the smoke vapor.  This will ensure an even smoke flavor.

No Work Grilling & Smoking Smokey Sweet Potatoes

Once the grill of your choice is set up, it’s just a matter of placing the whole potatoes on the grill grate, indirect side, and allowing them to tenderize.  This will take about 75 minutes total.  There is no need to do any rotation of the potatoes; just allow to infuse with flavor. 

#twozonecooking

If you’ve followed our recommendation for the charcoal grill – placing unlit charcoal/briquets on the direct side of the grill, lighting a chimney starter of charcoal, and pouring over the unlit coals when glowing hot, then adding the wood chunks – you’ll have plenty of fuel for the entire cook time.

Once tender, remove from the grill and set aside to use in your favorite sweet potato recipe.  I’ll be making a smoked sweet potato and chipotle soup with mine, which we will post the recipe soon.

One important point is to know that the boldness of the smoke will be much greater from a charcoal grill than a gas/LP unit.  You can see the difference on the skin of the potatoes that I’ve grilled today.  Nevertheless, grilled and smoked sweet potatoes are full of sweet, smoky flavor you’ll want to enjoy all year long.

What’s your favorite sweet potato recipe?  Leave us a comment to opine and subscribe to get all our postings on tips, techniques and recipes.  Bringing innovation to wood fired cooking with recipes, techniques and the science behind the fire, smoke, and flavor. That’s SmokinLicious®.

 

POTATO SALAD GETS SMOKE INFUSION

Looking to add some smoky flavor to your BBQ try this Potato salad gets smoke infusion recipe and please your guests taste buds!

Without question, potatoes are my favorite vegetable to expose to smoke vapor.   For one, it is so easy to do whether you select a gas/LP grill, charcoal grill, convection grill, or electric unit.  Additionally, it takes such a short amount of time to cook them this way.

I’ll give you my preparation for the potatoes and then my take on the traditional potato salad made with our awesome smoked potatoes.

 

Preparing for the Grill

Honestly, you can use any of your favorite potatoes for this technique and recipe.  I’ll tell you that I’m firing up my Orion Cooker as the high heat of this unit will allow my potatoes to become tender in about 60 minutes and I don’t need to do more than turn the potatoes one time.  Of course, I’m using the custom blend wood chips sold by Orion to ensure that the smoke infusion is perfectly balanced.  When using the Orion Cooker, a chimney starter of briquets should be started and the fuel pan of the unit filled with unlit briquets.  Personally, I like to use long-handled tongs and place my hot coals from the chimney started to the inner edge of the fuel pan.  That ensures that I direct the heat very quickly to the metal cylinder of the unit.

 

Tasting Notes:

If you’re using a traditional charcoal grill, try to do the cooking on hot coals only, with no flame. Start a chimney or two of hot coals and allow these to burn down until they are just hot coals.  Then pour into the charcoal area.  I often use a fine wire mesh in my charcoal area so I can retain even the smallest hot coal for my cooking.

On a gas grill, use a two-zone cooking method with wood chunks placed on the hot side of the grill, potatoes on the unlit side, and the lit burners set to low-to-medium. 

Before placing the potatoes on the grill grate of any of these units, clean them, pat dry, and pierce with a fork on both sides so the water in the potatoes can steam out during the cooking process.

 

No Work

As I said, potatoes are the perfect vegetable to put on the grill or smoker as their skin acts like a mini cooker and cooks them tender.  You’ll simply need to turn the potatoes just one time during the hour they grill.  While they are cooking, you can prepare the dressing to be ready to put everything together.

Tasting Notes: Always grill and smoke the potatoes with the skins on to keep the smoke vapor from getting too strong.  Remember, potatoes have a lot of water which will be an attractant to smoke vapor.

 

Creamy Dressing

For our creamy dressing, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups of mayonnaise
• Rice or cider vinegar- 2 tablespoons
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of yellow mustard
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 2 celery ribs, sliced
• 1 cup of onion, minced
• 5 hard-boiled eggs, coarsely chopped
• paprika

 
Start by combining the mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and sugar.  Be sure everything is mixed in well.  Taste to be sure everything is balanced and adjust as needed.  Usually, adjustments are made to the vinegar or mustard levels.   The texture will be very creamy.

Once the potatoes are tender, you can remove them from the grill and allow to cool.  Once cool enough to handle, cut into bite-size pieces.  Now add the chopped smoked potatoes to the dressing bowl and mix until all the potatoes are covered in dressing.  Give it just a few minutes to absorb.

 

Final Salad Touches

Now that the dressing has been added to the smoked potato pieces, it’s time to add the remaining ingredients.  First in, the celery and onion.  Mix this well to ensure a single bite doesn’t get all onion! 

Next, the chopped egg is added.  Gently mix this into the salad to keep the larger pieces from crumbling too far.  Finally, the sprinkle of paprika over the top of the salad.  I prefer a Spanish or Hungarian paprika.   That’s it!  Now chill until ready to serve and enjoy this super flavorful take on the non-traditional potato salad gets smoke infusion!

 

Tasting Notes

You can use a smoked paprika if you want even more kick of smoke but most of the time, a traditional paprika is suitable.