Roasted Sweet Potato Soup + Brown Butter Croutons {vegetarian}

I have this thing where I have zero clue what I'm going to make for this blog until it happens to be sunny and I cook something and then post it here.  

It's very scientific.  

but But BUT today I have soup photos to share AND it's getting colder AND Jay is a recent vegetarian AND it's pouring rain outside and is supposed to all day!  

It's like I planned it.  

I made this soup last week for a catering dealio, and it turned out GOOD.  Really good.  Also simple!  I read somewhere once that sweet potatoes have the most nutrition per ounce of any item in the produce department.  I have no clue if it's true, but even if it's KIND OF true it sounds pretty good, so I'm going with it.  Also there are croutons and fried sage on top of this.  Because we aren't eating fried foods at the moment, but that 100% doesn't count if the things that are fried are herbs.  It's a vegetable, people.  

Let's make soup.  You need sweet potatoes!  ½ potato per person, give or take.  You also need onion, celery, garlic, smoked paprika, and vegetable or chicken stock for the soup.  For the toppings you need sage, butter, heavy cream, and bread for the croutons.  

We roast the potatoes first since they take the way longest.  You could also do this a day in advance.  Prick them all over with a fork, then put them in the oven all naked for 1 hour at 450F.  When they're super tender and kind of ooey gooey (and the house smells like cooked sugar), they're done!  

While the potatoes are roasting, I work on the sage and the croutons.  Add the butter to a skillet, and let the butter melt over medium-high heat.  When the butter foams, add the sage leaves and fry for about 1 minute on each side until they're bright green and slightly dark at the edges.  

Remove the sage from the skillet, and turn the heat down to medium-low.  

At this point, the butter should be clear and have little brown bits on the bottom.  Brown butter!  Cut the bread into cubes.  

Add the bread to the brown butter and toss the croutons around.  

Let the croutons cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes until they're crispy on the outside and coated in the butter.  Sprinkle with a little salt and set them aside with the sage while you get back to the soup.  

Now that the toppings are done and the sweet potatoes are roasted, cut the onion, garlic, and celery into big chunks.  We'll puree the soup, so no need to get all fancy with the chopping.  

To a medium-sized pot, add another pat of butter and the veggies with a sprinkle of salt and the smoked paprika over medium-high heat.  

Let the veggies saute for 5 minutes or so just to soften a bit, then add the stock.  

Cover the pot and let the veggies cook in the stock while you prep the sweet potatoes.  Peel, chop, try not to make a huge mess.  

When the veggies are soft, add the sweet potatoes to the pot.  

Then, we blend.  I use an immersion blender, but you can use whatever you like to puree the soup - regular blender, food processor, anything else cool that I don't know about....

When the soup is totally pureed, taste it and add salt or more stock if it's very thick.  

Then, serve!  Drizzle with cream, top with sage leaves and croutons.  

SERVE.  

I really hope it's raining where you are so that you feel like this blog is fitting nicely into your life like I do right now.  

The end.