Meatless Monday with Elmer Zapata-Mercado

This recipe for sweet potato soup with coconut milk can be scaled up or down as needed, depending on how many people you’re feeding. Enjoy!

Additional ingredients: salt and pepper to taste.

1. Preheat the oven to 430F.
2. Wash the sweet potato(es) and dice into 1/2-inch cubes. Distribute the cubes on a baking tray with baking paper, drizzle with ½ tbsp. of olive oil per person and season with salt, pepper, and half of the thyme. Bake the cubes for 15-25 min until cooked, tossing halfway through the cooking time.
3. Cut the green onion(s) in rings. Press or chop the garlic. Remove the seeds from the bell pepper and dice into ½-inch cubes.
4. Zest the lime and press its juice in a bowl.
5. Drain the pinto beans.
6. Heat ½ tbsp. of olive oil per person in a sauce pan on middle-high heat and fry half of the green onion for 1-2 minutes. Add the pepper and fry for 5 minutes. Add garlic, garam masala and the rest of the thyme. Fry for 30 seconds and add the tomato cubes, 50 mL water per person and the coconut milk. Crumble the vegetable stock cube in the pan and stir well.
7. Season the soup with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 12-15 minutes on low heat. Add pinto beans for the last 5 minutes of this cooking time.
8. Remove the soup from the stove, and stir in the roasted sweet potato cubes and half of the lime juice.
9. Serve by ladling the soup into bowls, and garnish with the remaining green onion and lime zest. Add remaining lime juice to taste.