Canned Sweet Potatoes are Evil (and recipe review: Curried Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Soup)

Several years ago, we had Thanksgiving dinner with a large group of people.  Sweet potatoes have always been my favorite Thanksgiving offering as long as I can remember.  I like them no frills:  mashed with a little butter, salt and pepper.  Well, I have had to make them vegan for the last few years so I can't use real butter, but that's okay.  They still taste almost as good without butter.  That year, the sweet potatoes were canned.  I hadn't really had canned sweet potatoes before, so I assumed they were similar to fresh sweet potatoes.

I should have known better.

My oldest, who was probably about 4 at the time, took one bite and refused to eat any more sweet potatoes.

Ever.

She is 8 1/2 and still doesn't like eating sweet potatoes.  But they're still my favorite, so I can't resist making a meal with sweet potatoes every so often.  And considering yesterday was one of the last cool days before we have a mini heat wave (Monday is predicted to get to 85!  For the Pacific Northwest, that's extremely warm for May), yesterday was the perfect day to make Curried Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Soup from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.  Fat Free Vegan Kitchen (FFV) is one of my favorite websites to find recipe ideas.  I have not once had one of her recipes fail me.  They are all so delicious!  The Curried Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Soup is no exception.

I could eat this soup every day.  It's perfect:  cauliflower, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, and just a hint of heat.  Now Lacy especially didn't eat much of this soup so I also offered some apple and cucumber slices at the table.  I understand that sweet potatoes aren't something she enjoys, so I like to offer an additional food item.  While I'd prefer her to eat what I serve, I think more damage would be done if I forced her to "clean her plate" or eat a food she didn't like. I asked that she please eat one bite of sweet potato, which she did.  She also ate out all the cauliflower and chick peas, so there's that.

Uriah, my 3 year old, ate his entire bowl.  There was about one or two tablespoons worth of soup left in the bottom of the bowl- mostly tomatoes (his least favorite food, unless it comes in spaghetti sauce-form).  So at least *some* of my kids thought it was delicious!

I adore this soup and will make it again when the weather gets cool.  Also perhaps when I happen to realize my particular meal plan isn't going to work out for that night and I have cauliflower and sweet potatoes lying around.  Which is what happened last night.  This soup was plan B.  And what a delicious plan B it turned out to be!