A warming and indulgent sweet potato & carrot soup with goat cheese pesto, served with thick yogurt & lots of fresh basil. Perfect for cold days & hungry tummies.

All hail soup, the queen of winter feasts and humble meals alike. Comforting, filled with flavour and gifting us with much more than a bowl of goodness. With just a little prep and a couple additional steps, soup can be transformed from average to a true gift, both for tummy and the soul.

I grew up eating all sorts of soups, which my mom made regularly, changing flavour profiles based mostly on what she craved and always taking lead by the best seasonal ingredients she’d find at the farmers market: some were velvety and finished off with too much freshly ground black pepper, others chunky, offering delicious vegetable or fish pieces (and less often meat) in abundance. Most of the time they included some potatoes for thickening and always lots of spices and herbs for extra flavour.

This one starts off in the oven, where sweet potatoes, carrots and onions are first baked with lots of spices, a generous glug of olive oil, a touch of honey and some seasoning; then on to the pot they go, with some delicious stock, and cooked until very very soft. And to finish things of nicely, you can make a fragrant salty pesto, to balance out the sweetness of the vegetables. The one I added here is made with crumbly goat cheese in the place of parmesan and really is delicious. You can leave it out, if you want, but it really adds depth and compliments the soup, alongside some thick Greek yogurt

Sweet potato & carrot soup with goat cheese pesto

WHAT

2 large carrots, peeled & sliced

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled & sliced

2 red onions, skins removed & cut in thick slices

4 garlic cloves, skin removed

a good drizzle of olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons honey

1 teaspoon ground smoked paprika

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

freshly ground black pepper & sea salt to taste

for the pesto:

40g fresh basil leaves

25g blanched almonds

80g crumbly goat cheese

1 garlic clove, skin removed

100ml extra virgin olive oil

to serve:

big dollops of full fat Greek yogurt

basil leaves

HOW

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC FAN); toss the vegetables with olive oil, honey, spices and seasoning and arrange in a single layer on a baking tray; roast for about 15’, or until quite soft.
Remove from the oven and put in a large pot, along with enough vegetable stock to cover the vegetables.
Bring to a boil and then simmer on low heat for 15’-20’, until the vegetables are almost melting.
Meanwhile, prepare the pesto, by placing all the ingredients in a food processor, adding the olive oil last, gradually, until very smooth.
When the vegetables are ready, remove the pot from the heat and blend using a hand blender, or in a glass blender.
Spoon into soup bowls and garnish each with a couple teaspoons of the pesto, a dollop of yogurt and some fresh basil leaves.