Sweet Potato Soup with Greens and Sticky Japanese Rice

There are a couple of variations of this in terms of what greens you can use but it is a great example of 60:40 and including all of the 6 tastes. If you have a pressure cooker it is even easier and you can get this ready in less than 30 minutes. For this recipe I use Japanese sticky rice.

You will need

  • Three large sweet potatoes (peeled and chopped)

  • 180g of red lentils (rinsed and drained)

  • 2 large red or white onions (roughly chopped)

  • A couple of cloves of garlic

  • Thumb size piece of ginger

  • Salt and pepper to taste

  • Vegetable stock cube

  • Tablespoon of red pepper paste

  • Tsp of Tamarind paste

  • Cumin powder

  • Ground coriander powder

  • Japanese sticky rice

  • 2 Broccoli heads (chopped) or some shredded Kale

  • Ghee or olive oil

RICE

  1. Prepare your rice. For me as a Kapha, I find that 3 tablespoons of rice is enough per serving per person. Pete may need a little bit more but have a play around to see what portion size suits you guys best. Once you have the amount of rice desired, wash it a few times in water and stir with your hands. Keep doing this until the water becomes clear.. Then cover the rice with water and place on the hob on a high heat. Add some seasoning to taste. Once it begins to boil over, lower the heat. Keep tasting to check the consistency and add more water should you need. Sticky rice takes a little longer to cook than basmati.

GREENS

  1. Prepare your greens, cook your broccoli how you like. I usually like to parboil mine and then finish them off in the oven with some olive oil/ghee salt, pepper and cumin. You can also make kale crisps which are lovely and really bitter against the sweetness of the soup. Wash the kale, massage it with your chosen fat and add salt and pepper to taste. Bake in the oven at 180 for about  10 minutes. Keep an eye on these as they tend to crisp up quite quickly!

SOUP

  1. If using a pressure cooker, place the chopped onion, garlic, ginger, sweet potato, lentils, stock cubes, red pepper paste, tamarind, ghee and spices in the pot. Cover with plenty of water and place on the stove. Once the pressure cooker is pressurised, cook for a further 3 minutes. Then turn off the heat and allow it to depressurise. 

  2. Once the pressure is released, either blend it up with a hand blender or place in a food processor to blend. If the soup is too runny, place it back on the stove and cook it until some of the liquid is reduced. 

  3. Serve with your chosen greens on top and the sticky rice on the side.

Avi Sehmbi