Spicy Sweet potato and coconut soup

One of the good ideas of having Tim cook on Saturday nights is that he will pick recipes that I might pass over. This is one recipe that I would not have given a second thought and I would have missed out on an incredibly delicious soup.

Tim found this recipe on Allrecipes. It was submitted by Lynn. He made the soup exactly as stated but the second time we modified the recipe by putting the cooked sweet potatoes in a food processor before adding to the soup. I didn't care for the chunky sweet potatoes floating in the soup the first time. I felt food processing the potatoes blended the flavors better.

Ingredients:
11/2 pounds orange fleshed sweet potatoes
1 T vegetable oil
1 onion chopped
1 (2 inch) piece fresh ginger root, thinly sliced
1 T red or green curry paste
1 (15 ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk
3 Cups vegetable broth
3 1/2 T fresh lemon juice
1 t. sea salt
1 T sesame oil
1/2 Cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the sweet potatoes directly on the rack and bake until tender enough to easily pierce with a fork, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan or soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and ginger; cook and stir until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the curry paste and hear for 1 minute, then whisk in the coconut milk and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Remove the skins from the sweet potatoes and cut into bite size chunks. Add to the soup and cook for 5 more minutes so they can soak up the flavor. Stir in lemon juice and season with salt. Ladle into bowls and garnish with a drizzle of sesame oil and a little bit of cilantro.