Sweet Potato Soup Recipe (Silky Smooth) - Real + Vibrant (2024)

FAQs

How do you make soup silky smooth? ›

A common mistake is to not run the blender long enough. This results in a grainy-textured soup. The soup should be blended long enough to create a silky-smooth texture. Once the soup has been fully blended, it can also be strained through a fine mesh strainer to ensure any skins or tough fibers are removed.

When adding water to your pot of potatoes, use cold water. This ensures even cooking of your potatoes. When the soup comes to a boil, reduce heat a touch to maintain a gentle boil. Boiling at too high of a temperature will break down your potatoes and make your soup grainy.

Most creamy potato soup recipes call for a dairy product of some kind. If you plan to make a thicker version, try using thicker dairy from the outset. For example, if a recipe calls for whole milk, try adding heavy cream instead toward the end of the cooking process (set the burner no higher than medium heat).

If you blend or puree the potatoes for too long, the starch inside the potatoes will leak into the broth and create a gelatin-like consistency. It's for this reason, we like to blend the soup in batches (so if we over-blend a little it won't ruin the whole thing!) and only until it's just smooth.

Many of today's cream soups, however, are made by simmering the major flavor ingredients in thickened broth until they're tender. Then the solids are strained and, in most cases, pureed and returned to the soup. A second straining often follows to get the velvety-smooth texture that's associated with cream soups.

Soup Thickening Method: Cornstarch Slurry

Cornstarch is flavorless, easy to mix up, and versatile, which makes it a go-to pantry ingredient. I made a classic slurry by whisking cornstarch and hot broth until smooth in a small bowl.

Should I soak my potatoes before making soup? You don't have to soak them, but I do recommend doing so in cold water at least until you've finished cubing all the potatoes. This will keep them from turning brown and ugly.

Adding an acid like vinegar or lemon juice and incorporating fresh herbs can also help add flavor to a potato soup.

Potato Soup Tips

A dollop or two of sour cream or Greek yogurt are also lovely ways to thicken potato soup while also adding a little tang. If you have leftover mashed potatoes on hand, toss them in! They'll also work wonders at giving this soup a little extra body.

Not Adding Acid. If a soup is tasting bland in the bowl, consider adding acid rather than salt. A squeeze of lemon or lime, or a dash of yogurt or sour cream can add brightness to the bowl.

Does milk make soup creamier? ›

Milk or Half-and-Half: This is the other magical ingredient that turns your homemade chicken noodle soup into the creamiest soup ever. Use 1 cup of whole milk or 1 cup of half-and-half. If you want to make regular (non-creamy) chicken noodle soup, replace the milk with more chicken broth.

So what do you do if you've made the mistake of using starchy potatoes in your soup? One trick to make your potato soup a little less grainy is to add some form of dairy –- cream, milk, or even cheese. Because dairy is generally creamy in texture, that characteristic will carry over into your soup.

Sear or roast your potatoes to prevent gummy soup

Searing or roasting your potatoes does more than just add extra flavor to your soup. It can actually prevent your broth from becoming gluey.

Processing potatoes too much gives them a gummy, sticky texture that will turn your soup into slime after adding liquids. If you slice the potatoes too thin, or pulverize them in a food processor, the veggies release extra starch that gives your soup a gluey consistency.

Add Cream: Let's get the obvious one out of the way.

Whether you use a few tablespoons or a few cups, cream gives soup a silky mouthfeel and rich flavor. You can definitely add milk or other dairy as well, though it will taste gradually less creamy as you go down in percent.

If you're looking for the best blender for making smoothies, shakes, frozen drinks, nut milk, or soups, you can't go wrong with Vitamix's E310 Explorian model. For a smaller personal blender with cups made to take on the go, we recommend the Nutribullet Pro 900 for its power and portability.

Go ahead and take a masher to your soup, mashing until you reach your desired consistency. I, personally, like to have just a bit of texture to the soup, but if you want a perfectly smooth consistency and don't have a blender to do to it in, then all you have to do is pass the soup through a fine mesh sieve.

The main characteristic of a bisque is that it is smooth and has a velvety texture. Most recipes will include a wine and cream to give it its signature flavor and texture. But it's not merely the choice of ingredient that makes bisque different from other types of soups.