This purple sweet potato soup is very easy and quick to make. It’s a great way to use purple sweet potatoes. It’s filling, healthy and has a beautiful, deep, purple color!
I’ve been growing purple sweet potatoes for a few years now. Until this year (2023), I’ve only grown them for us but this year we planted a whole lot of purple sweet potato slips in a long 70-foot row (watch me plant them here). The thought was to grow more to sell commercially.
Even though many of the slips died on us, we still harvested a ton of purple sweet potatoes. I’ve tried many purple sweet potato recipes in the past (you can find all the sweet potato growing, preserving, and recipes that I have here on the blog on this page), but one I haven’t tried until now was a purple sweet potato soup.
Purple Sweet Potato Recipe…
I make a delicious pumpkin soup that I add a sweet potato to (an orange one), but aside from that, I’ve never tried to make a soup that was all sweet potato. I decided to try, and came up with a very simple recipe. I have to say that I was very surprised by the result!
First, it’s not as heavy as I thought it would be, being a potato soup, second, it’s healthy and absolutely delicious, and third, the potatoes kept their gorgeous deep purple color! I thought that I’d lose some of it in the cooking, but no, this soup is definitely a conversation starter because of its unique color.
Ingredients…
- Purple sweet potatoes
- Medium red onion
- Garlic cloves
- Butter
- Water
- Chicken flavoring
- Salt and black pepper
- Heavy whipped cream or sour cream for serving
Kitchen Tools…
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Dutch oven – or any other soup pot
- Wooden spoon
- Measuring spoons
How to Make Purple Sweet Potato Soup…
Step one – dice the vegetables. Start by peeling and dicing the onion and the garlic cloves. Then wash, peel, and cut the potatoes into small pieces.
Step two – fry the veggies. Place your dutch oven on the stovetop and turn the heat to medium-high. Add the butter and give it a minute or so to melt. Add the diced onion and saute for 5 minutes or so. Add the garlic, mix, and saute for three more minutes. Add the potatoes, mix them with the garlic and onion, and let them cook (stir frequently) for 3 minutes.
Step three – add water and cook. Add water and stir, then let the soup come to a boil. Once it’s boiling, season with the chicken flavoring, salt, and black pepper. Stir the seasonings in, lower the heat to medium so the soup keeps a gentle, rolling boil, and cook for an additional 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
Step four – blend the soup. Use an immersion blender to blend the soup until smooth. Taste and correct seasonings before serving.
How to Serve Purple Sweet Potato Soup…
Add hot soup to a serving bowl and add a teaspoon or so of cream. Mix it in and enjoy! The only additional thing you need to make it a full meal is good bread (this Artisan or this Challah bread will work!) with a spread of garlic butter. There are other toppings that you can add at servings, I list them in the options below.
Options And Variations…
- Use liquid chicken stock – if you prefer, feel free to use 8 cups of store-bought or homemade chicken stock instead of the chicken flavoring and water.
- Use vegetable stock – this soup also works great with vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.
- Add thyme – fresh or dry thyme adds great flavor. Add it when you add the seasonings.
- Make it spicy – if you want a little heat in your soup, add some cayenne pepper when you add the other seasonings.
- Add other root vegetables – feel free to add beets, turnips, carrots… It might mess up the deep purple color but it will be tasty.
- Toppings – you can top this soup with many different things when serving it! Try chopped pistachios, crumbled bacon, sour cream instead of the whipping cream, red pepper flakes…
How to Store Leftovers…
- In the fridge – I usually make a large pot of soup and keep it in the fridge for a few days. You can heat individual servings in the microwave or on the stovetop (or reheat the whole pot on the stovetop). If you feel that the soup is too thick, add a little bit of water (mix it in) before you reheat the soup.
- In the freezer – this soup is actually a great way to preserve purple sweet potatoes because it’s easy to freeze. I prefer doing this in quart jars. I fill the jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace, close the jars with a plastic freezer lid, and place them in the freezer. Set ahead of time on the counter at room temperature to thaw and then reheat before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions…
You know… I’ve never tried. This is the only all sweet potato soup I have ever made. Of course, you can try to just use regular sweet potatoes, I think that it should work.
If you don’t grow them yourself (which is super easy if you have a long summer), you can often find them at Chinese supermarkets.
Yes, they do. They aren’t as sweet as the orange ones and they are denser. They are somewhere between a regular potato and a sweet potato, just purple…
If you want to try and grow purple sweet potatoes, you’ll have to plant slips (basically potato vines). We got ours from Sprout Mountain Farm. The variety we grew (in 2023) is the Purple Splender.
This purple sweet potato soup is so easy to make. It has a beautiful and unique color that is sure to be a conversation around the dinner table. It’s filling and healthy, and is a great way to use your purple sweet potato harvest! I hope that you’ll give it a try.
More Purple Sweet Potato Recipes…
- Purple Sweet Potato Chips
- 40 Purple Sweet Potato Recipes
- Mashed Purple Sweet potatoes
- Baked Purple Sweet Potatoes
- Roasted Purple Sweet Potatoes
- Savory Sweet Potato Pies
Purple Sweet Potato Soup
Delicious, healthy, and very purple! Purple sweet potato soup.
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1 medium red onion, peeled and diced
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and diced
- 3 pounds purple sweet potatoes, peeled, and diced
- 8 cups water
- 2 tablespoons Knorr chicken flavoring
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- Heavy whipped cream or sour cream for serving
Instructions
- Place your dutch oven on the stovetop and turn the heat to medium-high. Add the butter and give it a minute or so to melt. Add the diced onion and saute for 5 minutes or so. Add the garlic, mix, and saute for three more minutes. Add the potatoes, mix them with the garlic and onion, and let them cook (stir frequently) for 3 minutes.
- Add water and stir, then let the soup come to a boil. Once it’s boiling, season with the chicken flavoring, salt, and black pepper. Stir the seasonings in, lower the heat to medium so the soup keeps a gentle, rolling boil, and cook for an additional 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
- Use an immersion blender to blend the soup until smooth. Taste and correct seasonings before serving.
- Add hot soup to a serving bowl and add a teaspoon or so of cream. Mix it in and enjoy! The only additional thing you need to make it a full meal is good bread with a spread of garlic butter. There are other toppings that you can add at servings, I list them in the notes below.
Notes
Options and Variations...
- Use liquid chicken stock – if you prefer, feel free to use 8 cups of store-bought or homemade chicken stock instead of the chicken flavoring and water.
- Use vegetable stock – this soup also works great with vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.
- Add thyme – fresh or dry thyme adds great flavor. Add it when you add the seasonings.
- Make it spicy – if you want a little heat in your soup, add some cayenne pepper when you add the other seasonings.
- Add other root vegetables – feel free to add beets, turnips, carrots… It might mess up the deep purple color but it will be tasty.
- Toppings – you can top this soup with many different things when serving it! Try chopped pistachios, crumbled bacon, sour cream instead of whipping cream, red pepper flakes…
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 194Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 20mgSodium: 325mgCarbohydrates: 30gFiber: 5gSugar: 9gProtein: 3g
Hi! I’m Lady Lee. I help homesteaders simplify their homesteading journey while still producing a ton of food! I am a single mother of four, I was born in Israel and raised in an agricultural commune called a Kibbutz. Now I homestead in central NC.