The cold front means it’s the perfect time to indulge in a hearty and delicious soup for supper with your loved ones.
This mouthwatering sweet potato and chilli soup can be enjoyed all on its own, or with a slice or two of freshly baked homemade ciabatta bread which we have added to this recipe.
Heat oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic . Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until soft. Add chilli . Cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until fragrant.
Add potato, stock and 2 cups cold water. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, stirring, for 10 to 15 minutes or until tender. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Process until smooth. Return to pan. Cook for 5 minutes or until heated through. Ladle into bowls. Top with parsley and sliced chilli. Serve.
2 ¼ cups warm water (you might need more if you are in a dryer area)
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon sugar (not usually found in traditional ciabatta, but it really helps speed the rise)
Instructions
Mix the sugar, water and yeast in a bowl and set aside for five minutes for the yeast to start working.
Add the flour and salt and mix in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle. You want the mixture to be just slightly thicker than a pancake batter- it should definitely not pull together into a firm dough.
Let the mixture stand for about 15 minutes. Then turn on the stand mixer to a medium-high setting. After about six minutes, the dough will start to make a flapping sound and start rising up the sides of the bowl.
At this point, switch the paddle for the dough hook and knead for another six to seven minutes until the dough starts pulling cleanly off the sides of the bowl. It will be smooth at this stage but still very sticky and loose.
Grease a bowl and pour the dough into it. Cover with a plastic wrap or kitchen towel and place in a warm spot, like an oven with the pilot light on.
In about 1 ½ to 2 hours, the dough would have tripled.
Prepare a cookie sheet by lining it with parchment paper and then dusting the paper liberally with flour.
Pour the dough out of the bowl and into the center of the cookie sheet. Dust the top with flour.
Using a bench scraper, divide the dough into two pieces. Using the bench scraper and a wet hand if needed, shape the dough, tucking the irregular pieces underneath, until you have two flat logs. The logs should be about six inches apart. This is a rustic bread, and the wet dough is not going to hold a definite shape, so don’t even try for a beautiful, even look. This is known as an Italian slipper bread for a reason. The baked bread will turn out absolutely gorgeous, trust me, with a translucent, lit-from-within look and those gorgeous air holes.
Dust some more flour over the logs, then cover them with a loose kitchen towel and place in a warm spot for about an hour or until the logs are risen and all puffy-looking.
About half an hour before baking, preheat the oven to 260 degrees C with a pizza stone or baking stone in place. Place an empty pan in the bottom rack while preheating, then add a cup of water to it just before you place the bread in the oven.
Place the ciabatta loaves directly on the baking stone by sliding the parchment off your cookie sheet. If you are really not sure how to do this, just place the entire baking sheet on top of the baking stone.
Bake for 25 minutes or until the loaves are golden-brown and the bottom sounds hollow then tapped.
