Sweet Potato and Rosemary Soup

Depending where in the country/world you are, you may have experienced some ridiculous levels of snow and ice recently. Team this with everyone still trying to get over the financial apocalypse of Christmas and it all starts to get a bit miserable. My proposed solution - soup!

This soup has so few ingredients that it ends up being really cheap which, in these frugal times, can only be a good thing! It's really warming and comforting, and incredibly easy to make. Apparently sweet potatoes are very good for you (something something beta carotene..?), and if you don't follow our pictured example and include a big wodge of bread and a cheese scone, this is overall quite a healthy meal. And it's vegan!

I based this on one of Annie Bell's recipes from her book Gorgeous Greens - which can be found here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gorgeous-Greens-Annie-Bell/dp/185626839X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359925315&sr=8-1 - not an exclusively veggie book but definitely enough meat-free offerings to make it a worthwhile purchase.

Serves 4, or 3 hungry people
What you need

olive oil (just a tbsp for frying)
3 medium-size sweet potatoes (cut into chunks)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
chilli flakes
a bay leaf
a few sprigs fresh rosemary (or dried will do if not!)
900ml vegan stock

What to do

Chop the onion, then fry in the olive oil over a medium heat until soft but not yet brown (7 minutes ish). Add the garlic and a pinch of chilli flakes, and cook for a further minute or two.

Add the sweet potato, bay leaf, rosemary and stock. I like to leave the rosemary in whole sprigs and then fish it out at the end, so that the flavour infuses but you're not chewing on the woody leaves.

Bring to the boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes, until the sweet potato is completely cooked through. Fish out the bay leaf and the rosemary sprigs. Then blend - either a liquidiser or a stick blender thing. Leave some chunks in if you prefer.

Enjoy!