We are very lucky to live just around the corner of a fantastic Vietnamese restaurant called Hy Vong in Coral Gables, FL. Here it was when I first tasted Vietnamese cuisine and I absolutely fell in love with the flavors. I always thought of Vietnamese cuisine to be pretty much the same as Thai but surprisingly it is quite different. Much milder first of all and although I am not a big fan of Thai cuisine I really like Vietnamese one. The soup I’m presenting is one of the many soups served in a restaurant and it is my attempt to copy the flavors In my version I used regular cooking cream and coconut oil but if you wish you can use regular cooking oil and a bit of coconut milk instead. The reason why I used coconut oil in place of coconut milk is that it adds just a hint of coconut flavor and even my boyfriend who is not very fond of coconut milk and won’t eat anything with it, absolutely doesn’t mind coconut oil.

Ingredients (6 servings):

3 large sweet potatoes (or 4-5 medium)
1.5 L (48 oz) chicken or vegetable stock
1 onion finely diced
2 grated garlic cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger (or 1 tsp grated fresh ginger)
1 tsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp coconut oil
2 Tbsp cooking cream (or 1/4 cup coconut milk)
Salt, pepper
2 stalks spring onion chopped
Handful of chopped cilantro leaves

Peel sweet potatoes and cut into small cubes.

Meanwhile heat coconut oil in a pot and saute the onion 5 min until soft. Add brown sugar, garlic and ginger, mix and saute 1 min more.

Add cubed sweet potatoes and pour chicken or vegetable stock. Stir and bring to a boil. Lower down the heat and simmer 20 min until sweet potato is very soft.

Transfer 2/3 of a soup to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour back to a pot, bring to a boil and mix with cooking cream or coconut milk. Season with salt and pepper and eventually add a bit more ground ginger.

Serve with chopped green onions and cilantro.