| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 2 hr |
| Active: | 35 min |
| Yield: | 8 to 10 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 pounds sweet potatoes
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 to 2 smoked ham hocks (about 1 pound total)
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, or more as needed
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 orange, zested and juiced, or more as needed
- One 15.5-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Arrange the sweet potatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet. Place in the center of the oven and bake until fully cooked, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. To check for doneness, pierce one with the tip of a small knife; it should slide in and out easily. Set the potatoes aside until cool enough to handle.
- Meanwhile, place the chicken stock, ham hock and 1 cup water in a medium pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, adding more water if the liquid runs low, until the tough skin of the ham hock softens, 30 to 45 minutes. Remove the ham hock and transfer to a flat surface. Peel away or use a knife to cut off the tough skin. Discard the skin and cut the meat beneath it into smaller pieces. Put the meat back into the stock and simmer gently over low heat so the meat flakes and flavors the liquid. You want to end up with 1 to 1 1/2 cups meaty, flavorful liquid. Keep warm.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat until it turns a light brown color, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and immediately stir in the brown sugar, cinnamon, orange zest and juice and stir to combine. Set aside.
- Peel the sweet potatoes and break the flesh into chunks; put the chunks into a large pot. Add the coconut milk and 1 cup water and simmer over medium heat, 5 to 8 minutes. Puree the soup with an immersion blender or in small batches in a blender. Return the soup to the pot and stir in the brown butter and ham and liquid. Taste for seasoning. If the soup needs more flavor, add salt, pepper, a pinch of brown sugar or more orange zest.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 10 servings |
| Calories | 399 |
| Total Fat | 26 g |
| Saturated Fat | 16 g |
| Carbohydrates | 25 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Sugar | 8 g |
| Protein | 19 g |
| Cholesterol | 67 mg |
| Sodium | 681 mg |
Reviews
Creamy, smoky deliciousness! Glad I tried! As soon as I saw Alex making this on her show, I knew I’d like it. A keeper!
Waste of time and money. Waaayyy too orange forward. Unfortunately we threw this out after trying a few things to fix it without any change.
This is a keeper. Delicious , creamy , but make it your main meal. High in Calories, carbs and cholesterol, but so worth int. My husband and I made batch. I should have 8 servings, I think we will get 6 servings. Freezing the rest for another cold night.
Oh my gosh, this is a winner! I kind of used the recipe as a guideline, but it turned out fabulous. I cubed the sweet potato then roasted it. I didn’t use any kind of ham, I used salted butter, I used a can of evaporated milk instead of coconut milk, I added chicken stock until it was the consistency that I wanted, and I didn’t think it needed any pepper or any salt (other than what was in the butter). Serving with corned beef, provolone, and sauerkraut panini.
didn’t turn out ended up throwing out. I like Alex G. It’s a bummer when you buy things for a recipe, and you end of throwing it away. It didn’t have much texture to watery.
It was definitely a few steps, but now that I’ve got it, I’ll be making this again. It didn’t get too starchy, as sweet potato soups can, but with the two extra liquids it came out really good! Great with toast points and white wine!
Pretty disappointed, missing a lot of flavor and working with the ham hock was difficult. Would be better with an actual ham bone. Needs more flavor!
I put the sweet potatoes in an instant pot with chicken broth then drained and reserved the broth which had a lot of flavor in It. I even added that to the soup and It still was very orangy and a little to much brown sugar sweet..i even cut the brown sugar to a tbls and the orange to a half. But it was nice and creamy. And I added a good tsp of some Ancho chili seasoning. If I make it again I’ll cut back on the cinnamon,sugar and leave the orange out completely.
I am a very picky eater. Normally I only eat sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving and Christmas and only if they are fixed with butter, cinnamon and sugar. My husband fixed this soup tonight omitting the orange juice and orange zest because I can’t eat/drink that. I can say this is one soup we will be eating again. My picky pallet enjoyed it very much!
It was very orange-forward. Other than that, it was good, but not amazing. It needs something. I’ll try it again, but less orange and maybe some warm spices. I couldn’t find ham hocks anywhere. I went online and found some at a place in PA. I’m very impressed with how meaty they are! each ham hock is 1.25 pounds. Perfect!