Sweet Potato Soup with Fried Skins

I’ve been wanting to cook more with sweet potatoes (good tasting and good for you!), and with today containing a definite hint of fall on its way, I thought I’d try some soup. I just followed one of the basic soup procedures: cook some vegetables in some broth, blend, add some spices. I thought the curry paste would make a nice flavoring, but I added a bit much (a teaspoon at the beginning and a teaspoon with the milk; I reduced it in the recipe I wrote up here, and maybe it should be even less). It probably would have benefited from whole milk or half and half (or third and third and third), but I tend to have skim in the house. It’s good with the fried skins and a hunk of dark sweet bread (and an episode of Deadwood).

Sweet Potato Soup
Ingredients
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 large onion, diced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 c vegetable broth
2 c water
1 c milk
1 tsp red curry paste
black pepper, cardamom, salt
Directions
Put broth, water, sweet potatoes, carrots, and onion in a large pot and bring to boil on high. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 25 minutes. Blend until smooth. Dissolve the curry paste in the milk and mix into the soup. Add salt, ground pepper, and ground cardamom to taste. Serve with bread, a sprinkling of pepper, some ground nuts, whatever.
Fried Sweet Potato Skins
Ingredients
Peels of two large sweet potatoes
Safflower oil, salt, pepper, curry powder
Directions
Peel the sweet potatoes with a vegetable peeler, and put the peels aside. Heat oil about 1/4″-1/2″ deep in a saute pan on medium high. Add the skins and fry until slightly crispy. Remove to a paper towel, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and curry powder (or whatever you like) and eat.