Curried Beet and Sweet Potato Soup

One of the blogs I follow is What I Wore 2Day, which includes a weekly 'Sporty Sunday' post (health, training, that sort of thing).  In a recent post, a curried beet and sweet potato soup was mentioned and I shamelessly asked for the recipe.  Success!  I even had beetroot in my delivery box this week.  You can find her recipe here, or see below for Australian measurements (or, What I Did).

3 medium beetroots
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion
2 large garlic cloves
2 teaspoons fresh ginger root
2 tablespoons Indian curry paste (haha.  When checking for ingredients I thought, I'll make my own like I normally do, so didn't buy any.  When it came time to make the soup though, I was not up to making any and didn't have any pre-made like Patak's, so I ended up using tamarind paste.  Unusual).
2 medium sweet potatoes
6 cups vegetable stock
400mL can coconut milk

Method:
Preheat oven to 200C. Rinse beetroots and remove greens (if still attached). Place in covered casserole dish and roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour (until easily pierced with a fork). Remove from oven, peel, and dice.  (I roasted 5 so I have some leftovers.  I'm also cautious when it comes to vegetable sizes from one country to another, and I've found the organic varieties to be generally smaller than non-organic but with much better taste - and, I have discovered, are more nutrient-rich).

While beets are roasting, peel/dice/press/chop onion, garlic, ginger, and sweet potatoes.  (I discovered that my ginger was a bit past it, so used some ground ginger instead).

Heat vegetable oil in large soup pot over medium heat. Saute onion, garlic, and ginger until onions are translucent. Add curry paste and stir to coat.  Add potatoes and vegetable stock. Bring to boil and gently simmer 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.  Add beets and remove from heat.

Using an immersion blender (I used my new stick blender), puree until smooth.  Return to heat. Stir in coconut milk. Heat through and serve.

I now have oodles of pink in my fridge and freezer - excellent antioxidants.  It looks like I'll get 8 serves out of this. 

Today's photo:

I have a pot of parsley on the kitchen windowsill waiting to be planted.  The advantage of its current spot though is the sunlight it soaks up in the afternoon.  And the fly-screen pattern on the leaves.