Eat This: Sweet Potato and Pepper Soup

"Eat me!," says the soup.  You'd do well to listen to it.

I've made this recipe so often over the years that SLB and I now just call it The Soup.  In an attempt to scare off this cold I made an extra potent batch today in the hopes that the Vitamin C from the peppers, Vitamin A from the sweet potatoes, and heat from the chipotles would nuke the virus out of my system.  Whether or not it has done so remains to be seen, but after a hot bowl of this soup I do feel at least 15% more human.  So, if you've got a bad case of boogers and/or cooties, I recommend that you gather these ingredients and make a pot of this soup for yourself.

What you need:
*2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped into about 1 inch dice (You're going to blend this soup later, so chopping doesn't need to be precise)
*1 yellow onion, chopped
*2 bell peppers (I like red and/or yellow for color contrast), seeded and chopped
*Hot peppers (In the past I've used 2 jalapenos seeded and diced, but here I used 1 chipotle in adobo sauce)
*48 oz of chicken or vegetable stock (give or take)
*About 2 cups of corn kernels (fresh is best, thawed frozen is second-best, drained canned is third-best)
*The juice of about .25 lime
*Salt and pepper to taste
*Olive oil
*Sour cream or plain yogurt, chopped cilantro, chopped green onion (optional, but awesome)

What to do:


*Sautee the peppers and onions in a splash of olive oil with a dash of salt over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables start to sweat.  They shouldn't brown, but rather begin to melt together and release their juices to make a yummy veggie liquor.

*When the peppers and onions have softened and mingled, add the sweet potatoes and stock.  Bring to a boil and then reduce to low.  Cover and simmer for 25 minutes.

*Remove the pot from the heat and blend the soup.  If using an immersion blender, you can go for it right away.  If you're blending the soup in batches in a conventional blender, let it cool for about 10 minutes before you do so.  If you try to blend the soup while it's still boiling hot you run the risk of hot, steaming soup exploding from your blender carafe onto every surface in the kitchen (ceiling included!) and scalding the living daylights out of your arm.  Or so I hear.  I'm way too fly to have experienced that kind of buffoonery myself.

*When the soup is velvety smooth add your corn, a healthy squeeze of lime, and salt and pepper to taste.

*Serve immediately with sour cream or yogurt, chopped cilantro, and chopped green onion.  Voila!  Delicious!

Health in a bowl, I tell ya.